


A Forgotten Past

by queenie1998



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Domestic Violence, Eventual SwanQueen, F/F, Idiots in Love, Jealous Emma, Jealousy, Major OC relationship, Mentions of Rape, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Pining, Post-Season/Series 06, Starts CS, Violence, conflicted regina, descriptions of violence, first fic ever, relationship with OC, somewhat canon compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:35:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 19
Words: 39,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21841528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenie1998/pseuds/queenie1998
Summary: A former flame of Regina's reappears in her life and they hit it off again. Emma is a hopelessly jealous housewife and struggles with coming to terms with her feelings for her best friend, and Regina is completely clueless on how to deal with the situation.
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 44
Kudos: 224





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello swen!  
> This is my first ever attempt at writing anything and I really have no idea where this is going, so be patient with me! That being said, this fic is going to largely focus on a relationship between Regina and a another woman, and Emma will be married to Killian, so if you don't like other people touching swanqueen this might not be the work for you. Eventually the plan is to get the two together but who knows what might come along the way!  
> -Queenie

“It’s alive!” Leroy bursts into Granny’s, out of breath and with wide eyes.   
Emma peeks over the booth at him as Regina rolls her eyes.

“Umm… What’s alive?” she asks him.

“A tree!!” He practically screams out, “The dwarfs and I were headed out to the mines and a tree in the forest started talking to us!”

This slightly peaked Regina’s interest, and she turned around in her seat with a raised eyebrow   
and asked,  
“Well what did it say?”

Leroy froze for a second before answering hesitantly.   
“It… asked for you, your majesty…”

Regina narrowed her eyes at him and sighed.  
“Well we best not keep a talking tree waiting, hmm? Emma?”

“Yea yea, I’m coming” She groaned as she put down the remains of her grilled cheese and stood up, grabbing her red leather jacket.  
“Never a dull day around here” She sighed.

Regina held her arm as purple smoke enveloped them and they reappeared outside the mines.  
“I don’t think I will ever like this place- not after what happened to Henry down there.” Regina remarked.

“I agree with you there” Emma chuckled softly, “Now let’s find Grandmother Willow”

“Grandmother who?” Regina raised her eyebrow.

“Oh from Poca… never mind… to find a talking tree we go!”

Regina shook her head at Emma and rolled her eyes,

“Okay let’s get searching then.”

It did not take too long to find what Leroy what talking about, and Emma’s Grandmother Willow reference was not too far off. Standing, well… rooted to the ground about 100 feet away from the mine entrance stood a tree with a vague face in it. 

“My Queen!” It said, with a somewhat feminine voice as soon as it saw Regina.

“Um hi, who are you?” Emma quickly responded as Regina looked deep at the tree, trying to figure out what was going on.

The face turned to Regina with a kind of longing in it’s eyes.   
“You… you don’t remember me?” It said to Regina.

Regina was caught a bit off guard, to say the least.  
“I’m afraid I do not. Who are you?”

The face sighed and responded,  
“Well I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. The short answer is that I was part of your guard. The rest might best be saved for a different time.” It glanced at Emma at that last part, and both Emma and Regina narrowed their eyes at the tree.

“So you are, well, you WERE, human?” Regina asked, a bit hesitantly.

“Yes, until I was trapped as a lovely piece of foliage”

Regina’s eyes went wide at that, and Emma looked back at her. 

“You don’t remember doing that, do you?” Emma asked.

“Definitely not” Regina quickly responded.

The tree was starting to get impatient. “Regina didn’t do it. I’m sure it sounds strange, but I would really appreciate not being a tree for any longer than has clearly passed” it said, looking again at Regina.

Regina took a deep breath and closed eyes for a second, thinking. It sure was strange, but the tree, well, the person in the tree seemed genuine enough. Regina looked at Emma and she nodded, affirming to Regina that she was ready in case anything unexpected happened. 

“Okay” Regina said, and lifted her hands at the tree. Blasts of purple magic shot from her hands, surrounding the tree. As the smoke cleared, both Emma and Regina gasped at the sight before them. Instead of the tree, standing there was a young woman, tall and muscular, with dirty blonde hair that fell in loose waves, barely brushing her lightly tanned shoulders. Her eyebrows were dark, and her eyes a grey color that was quite piercing.

She slowly walked towards them, a light sway in her hips. They saw just how tall she was, practically towering over them both with her lean but still curvy physique.   
“Still don’t remember me?” She asked with a little bit of a smirk as she looked at Regina’s face.

Her jaw was wide open, eyes wide as she took in the woman before her and shook her head at the question. Her clothes were unmistakably from the Palace in the Enchanted Forest, but surely Regina would remember such a woman if she ever met her. Regina’s heart thumped strongly in her chest as the woman walked closer towards her.  
“Uhhh…” Regina was speechless, for one of the first times of her life “what… what’s your name?” she asked, Emma looking at her as if Regina was possessed. Never in all her years knowing Regina had she seen her so… unsure.

“Renata” She responded, looking a bit disappointed that she had to say it. Nonetheless, her voice had a draw to it that made Regina’s heart flutter.

Emma kept glancing between the two of them uncomfortably. At just that moment, her cell phone went off and she answered it, groaning when it was another cat stuck in a tree she needed to retrieve. “Umm… Regina? I have to go do Sheriff duties, what do you want me to do with… her?” 

This seemingly broke Regina out of her trance  
“I’ve got her, you can go do what you need to do.”

Emma hesitated, seeing the way Renata looked at Regina with a sort of hunger in her eyes, but ultimately decided to follow Regina’s words and poofed out of the forest. 

Renata sighed, “So you really don’t remember me?”

“I do not”

“Well, I can see things are very different from when I last stepped foot in the Enchanted Forest”

“Oh, we aren’t in the Enchanted Forest” Regina responded

Now it was Renata’s turn to raise her eyebrows.  
“Well then, much has changed indeed”

Regina didn’t know why, but she felt like she could trust this woman, even though they just met.

Renata continued “I can see that you have changed quite a bit as well… not bad” she stated as she looked Regina up and down. “Quite different from the black gowns and leather I grew so accustomed to” she smirked.

“And when exactly did you know me?” Regina questioned, a little bit flushed from Renata’s hungry smirk.

“I think at this point it would be easier for you to find out yourself. But for that I will need one little thing.”

“And what would that be?” Regina leaned in a little as she cocked her eyebrow.

“My heart.”

Regina pulled back with wide eyes once again, blinking a few times at the response.  
“I… I can do that”  
Looking into her eyes, Regina reached over to hold her arm as purple smoke enveloped her once again. This time Regina reappeared in her vault, Renata by her side. Regina let go of her arm and slowly made her way towards the wall of hearts. 

“Oh no, it won’t be there” Renata remarked

Regina turned to look at her. She was holding a decorative box and offered it to her. Regina took the box and looked at the carvings on it. She only kept hearts that were special to her in boxes separate from her wall, but this one she didn’t remember. Slowly, she opened the box to reveal the red beating organ inside. She took a deep breath and looked up at Renata, who had a slightly teary expression on her face.  
“Why do you need this in order for me to remember?” Regina asked

“You’ll see, just trust me” Renata offered a small grin “I know it doesn’t come easy to you but trust me.” She reassured as she took Regina’s hand gingerly in her own. 

Regina looked back down at the box in her hand and set it down on the nearby table. She reached in, grasping the organ. Renata eyed it as Regina brought it up to her chest. Quickly and as gingerly as she could, Regina forced the heart back into its spot and removed her hand. Renata gasped and dropped Regina’s hand to hold onto the table as she caught her breath from the pain. She felt above her heart as if checking that it was really there, then turned towards Regina with an unreadable expression.

Regina felt a moment of panic as Renata burst towards her, not knowing what she was about to do. In a split-second, Renata’s lips were on a wide-eyed Regina’s as she moaned into them. A strong burst of white energy ripped through the two women, and then the entirety of Storybrooke. Regina gasped as she pulled away, memories flooding her head and she started to collapse.

~~40 years ago~~  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“Don’t let them do this, Gina, please!” A young blonde headed woman begged in front of the Evil Queen.

“The punishment for your crimes would normally be death, but your King has decided to be merciful.” 

A armored guard approached the girl with a flask of liquid. She glanced at it with teary eyes and looked at her Queen. The Evil Queen had tears rolling down her cheeks, but otherwise had it together for the sake of not receiving a worse punishment for the girl- the only one who had broken through her cold shell. 

“Renata of the Southern Kingdom, disgraced member of the Queen’s guard, I, Leopold, King of this land, sentence you to your fate.” 

The guard forced open Renata’s mouth and poured the potion down. All Regina could do was watch as the woman she loved screamed and morphed into the inanimate tree. She had no doubt that the tree would be left there as a monument and reminder to Regina of her actions. Regina turned and stomped towards the palace, no longer able to keep her composure as she cried out, her hate for King Leopold multiplied. As she reached her chamber, Regina screamed loud enough for the whole palace to hear, and her sadness changed to pure rage. She started to scheme on ways to kill the King and was deep in thought when a rather unpleasant visitor made his presence known.

“Such a sad time for twoo wuv” Rumpelstiltskin mocked in his singsong voice.

Regina growled as she lunged towards him, attempting to grab his throat, but of course Rumpelstiltskin was in the opposite corner of the room by the time she moved.  
“What do you want? Or are you just here to rub my failed romance in my face?”

“Now, now, Dearie, that is no way to talk to a friend” he said, wagging his finger at her.

Regina let out another low growl “You are no friend to me”

“Well then, I guess I won’t help you get over your… true love” and with that, Rumpelstiltskin disappeared.

Several days passed, with no one seeing Regina, but everyone feeling the effects of her rage. Even Leopold stayed far away from his queen for fear of his own safety.

Regina went out to the tree still standing out front of palace, conveniently within view from her chamber window. She cried for minutes, hours, she had no idea. Eventually she looked up to see none other than Rumpelstiltskin grinning at her. She offered a tear-soaked snarl.  
“I can’t be weak like this anymore”

“Love is weakness, dearie. You know that very well”

Regina cringed as she heard her mother’s voice in her head. She couldn’t imagine what her mother would say if she saw her now, crying, broken, all because of a woman.

“Make it go away” She commanded.

“That I can do” Rumpelstiltskin smiled darkly as he offered a potion to her.

“What’s the cost?” She questioned, glaring up at him.

“Do you want to get rid of the pain or not?” He deadpanned.

Regina sighed, and grabbed the flask, downing it in one gulp.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why am I crouched in front of this tree? Regina asked herself, then got up and returned to her chambers, remembering nothing of Renata and the time they shared together during the past year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get heated, Regina makes a decision, and Emma is confused. Very. Confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow!! Thank you guys for all the great feedback!! I am so surprised by the response this has gotten so far!

When Regina came to, she was lying on the ground of her vault, head in Renata’s lap. She was gently stroking her hair. Regina looked up and smiled gently, taking in this woman who had not aged a bit since that fateful day, still looking so young despite Regina knowing better. Regina sat up and turned to look Renata deeply in the eyes.  
“I’m so sorry” Regina said, eyes starting to water.

“Oh Gina, you remember!” Renata engulfed her in a hug, and Regina held her tightly for all the years they missed.

“I… I would’ve freed you, but I didn’t know” Regina cried

“It’s okay, it’s all okay, we are together now”

Regina pulled away slightly to look the blonde in her eyes once again, only to break down and practically tackle her to the ground with a kiss. Renata moaned as she ran her fingers through Regina’s now short hair. Regina held her face with both as she straddled her, dominated the kiss. Renata pulled Regina flush with her body and held her olive shoulders as she took over, flipping positions on the stone floor. She pressed her own thigh between Regina’s and moved down to nibble her neck as Regina moaned loudly and lightly pulled on blonde hair, making the blonde moan in return. Suddenly, Renata reached around the brunette underneath her and picked her up. Regina’s skirt rode up as she wrapped her legs around the blonde. They made their way to the nearest wall and Renata pushed Regina up against it, claiming her lips desperately with one arm around Regina’s waist and the other against the wall over her head.  
“I want you” Regina breathlessly whispered.

With that, the blonde let out a growl and quickly pulled off Regina’s blazer as the Mayor started to unbutton her blouse, only making it partway before getting caught up in another hungry kiss. The blonde pinned Regina’s hands over her head on the wall, the brunette arching into it and pressing her body against the blonde’s. The two were moaning in tandem and so lost in each other they failed to notice the footsteps descending into the vault.

“REGIN-OH” Emma started to call out for the mayor but stopped upon seeing her pinned to the wall by the tall blonde, legs wrapped around her and making out heavily. Emma flushed at the sight, and before she could make an attempt to back out quietly, Regina turned her head to grant Renata access to her neck and opened her eyes just enough to see her best friend staring in shock.

“OH MY GOD” Regina let out and pushed the blonde away, almost falling to the floor in the process. 

Renata was very confused for a split second until she followed Regina’s gaze and grey eyes met green. “Oh” was all that left her mouth upon seeing the expression on the Sheriff’s face.

“Umm... I’ll just uhhh… go…” Emma turned around to leave, confused by her body’s reaction to seeing her best friend pinned to the wall.

“Emma wait!” Regina called after and chased the shorter blonde as she attempted to make herself modest. The two emerged from the vault one after the other. Regina reached out and grabbed Emma’s arm, pulling her back.  
“Emma, It’s not” She stopped immediately upon seeing her friends face. Emma’s eyes were red and she was sniffling. “Emma? What’s wrong?” Regina asked, worried.

“It’s… it’s nothing. I have to go. Umm… I’ve gotta go make dinner for me and Killian.” Emma croaked out. Regina let go of her arm with a puzzled look and watched the blonde walk away.

She stood there for a while, confused and deep in thought. 

“Hey Gina. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed you were single and I’m just going to go now” 

Regina heard the voice behind her and whipped around “What? Ren? No! It’s not like that! Emma is-“

Renata’s eyes watered at the old nickname “It’s okay Gina, I understand. Even though it’s like yesterday to me it’s been a long time for you. It’s only natural to move on- and… I see how much she cares for you.” She said with her eyes downturned. Regina thought she could see tears falling off her former lover’s face.

Regina was too stunned to respond, so once again, she stood and watched as a blonde walked away from her. She was alone. Again. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been several days since Renata’s awakening, and Emma had been avoiding Regina like the plague. No texts, no calls, not answering texts or calls. She hadn’t been at Granny’s when Regina came to pick up lunch, she was nowhere. As for Renata, Regina had no idea how to begin to contact her. It’s not like she came out of the tree with a cell phone, and Regina had not passed by her in town yet. To say Regina was depressed would be an understatement. Every day was dull, she had puffy eyes, and no desire to do pretty much anything. ’I wish Henry was here’ she thought to herself. She missed him the moment he walked into that portal to find his destiny in the Enchanted Forest. Regina thought through her options and decided to call the one friend she had who wasn’t actively avoiding her, Kathryn. 

After describing her plight and the strange behavior of her friend, Regina receives a reply “Well of course she saw how Emma looks at you! It’s obvious from the next state over!”

“What are you talking about?” Regina practically screamed “Emma is married!!”

“Since when has that ever stopped anyone? Emma has been looking at you with sex eyes since the moment she arrived!” Kathryn paused “now what about this other girl…Renata was it?

“Yes”

“You just had to pick someone with a similar name to your own to make it confusing, huh?”

Regina just rolled her eyes to that one.

“Anyway” Kathryn continued “How come you never mentioned her before?”

“I… I didn’t remember her”

“Well it seems like an important thing to remember”

“I was hurt- I couldn’t stand the pain anymore so I got rid of it. I forgot her. Everything about her even existing”

“Ouch” Kathryn did not have much to say to that

“But apparently now I have a jealous friend who I didn’t know was interested and is thus avoiding me, and an ex-girlfriend who thinks me and said friend are together.” Regina huffed out. “And therefore avoiding me” She finished

“Well…” Kathryn thought for a second “Who do you want to be with?”

“I… I don’t know” Regina pondered “I had always wondered what something with Emma would look like… but of course she went off and married the one-handed wonder. Renata… I love her. I would never have stopped if it weren’t for the potion.”

Kathryn kinda giggled “Well, you want complicated and messy or your true love? It honestly doesn’t sound like much of a comparison to me.”

“I know maybe I’m overthinking this, but… Renata…” Regina sighed “It’s been a long time… I know we shared true love’s kiss but…”

“What if she doesn’t feel the same after getting to know you again?”

“…Yeah”

“Regina” Kathryn sighed “Renata loved the Evil Queen, but from what I’m hearing, was a good person. Don’t you think it would be easier to love you know?”

Regina thought about it and sighed “you’re right… why do you have to be right?”

Kathryn chuckled “It’s what friends are for. Now go find yourself a woman!”

“Okay, Goodbye Kathryn.”

“Goodbye Regina”

‘Now how on Earth am I going to find her?’ Regina thought to herself. It had been a couple days since her talk with Kathryn, and she felt ready. She thought about a locator spell, but for that she had to have something that belonged to Renata, and she didn’t. Maybe at one point she did, but not remembering a person existed made sentimental objects a bit less… well- sentimental. Regina huffed, realizing her best shot was to just wander around town and hope she saw her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tired of hiding at home, but still not ready to face Regina after her almost breakdown at the vault, Emma waited until there was no way Regina would be out to make her way to Granny’s. She sat down in her usual booth ‘that she shares with Regina for lunch’ her brain unhelpfully supplied, to watch the regulars. Ruby had recently come came from her trip to Oz, Dorothy in tow, and was now getting ready to take over the family business from Granny. 

“Well hey there stranger! Where have you been the past few days?” Ruby asked as she made her way over.

“Oh just super busy with sheriff… stuff” Emma supplied unconvincingly.

“Mhmm” Ruby mumbled, clearly unconvinced. “Your usual, then?”

“Yes please”

As Ruby went back to put the order in, the door to the inn opened and none other than Renata walked in. Emma eyed her as she walked over to a stool at the booth. Emma wondered why she wasn’t staying with Regina. After all, they were practically screwing in the vault. She found this development somewhat interesting and kept an eye on Renata as Ruby made her way over and.. kissed her? Sure it was on the cheek, but that was not was Emma was expecting. Emma stayed quiet and tried to listen to what they were saying.

“Hey girlie, did you still want to go shopping tomorrow?”

“Yea, I guess we should, I can’t keep borrowing Dorothy’s clothes forever”

“Hey, she is entirely too fond of you, she’d probably let you”

“But still, I feel like I’m taking advantage of you guys, especially based off how I left things last time.”

“Look, I don’t care. I’m just happy to have you back in whatever way I can. I love you so much, and never stopped. Whatever you need, it’s yours. I’ve missed you so much.”

“I love you too Red, thank you” Renata leaned over the counter to hug Ruby and give her a kiss on the cheek.

Emma listened and was a bit confused. They spoke as if they were ex-lovers, and that had her a bit upset. Did Regina know? Did she know that this… girl was shacking up with some ex and her wife? I mean sure, they certainly spoke as if they were just friends now, but they were a bit overly affectionate towards one another, in a way that Emma had certainly never been with just a friend. Renata turned and met Emma’s eyes. She gave her a sad smile and nod, confusing Emma even more. ‘what on earth is going on?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Regina decided to pursue Renata instead of Emma, and Red and Renata have history. I promise this will eventually be swanqueen, but both our girls have some things to work through before they get there. I am aiming to have the next chapter out by next week! Thank you for your kudos and reviews!!  
> -Queenie


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished this section a little sooner than I was expecting. Thank you for the comments on the last chapter! Enjoy!

The next day, Emma returned to Granny’s hoping to figure out what she was missing. Renata was already there, sitting on a stool laughing and smiling with Ruby. Emma couldn’t deny she was beautiful, especially now in normal clothes. She had on black skinny jeans, which showed how muscular her legs were, a v-cut burgundy t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. A gold chain was around her neck, and she had black leather boots on. Her hair was half up in a messy bun, the rest falling in loose blonde waves around her shoulders. She looked carefree, obviously enjoying life without sword fighting and ogres.

Emma made her way over to her booth and Ruby followed soon after, still grinning. Ruby took her order, the usual, and went to put it in. she came back out and started wiping down tables. Emma heard the door chime and looked up to see Regina bursting in. She locked eyes with Ruby and to Emma’s surprise, gave her a soft smile.

“Ren, we need to talk.”

The woman in question turned her head and smiled at Regina. Emma wanted to puke.

“Of course Gina, do you want to go somewhere else?”

Regina glanced in Emma’s direction and bit her lip. “I think we should, yes.”

Renata got up from her stool and led the way towards the inn, but made no attempt to reach for Regina’s hand, which Emma found strange. Once they had left, Emma and Ruby were the only ones in the diner. Emma took a deep breath and decided to just bite the bullet and ask what was going on.

“So… what’s your connection to tree girl?”

Ruby turned and narrowed her eyes at Emma and the obvious jab. “Why are you asking?”

“I just don’t expect Regina is much of one to share.”

Ruby’s eyebrow lifted and the corner of her mouth quirked up before she burst out laughing.

“What? What could possibly be funny about this?”

Ruby tried to stop laughing, quite unsuccessfully for a while, before finally getting out “Ren is my… is my SISTER!” and bent over laughing again.

Emma flushed and thought back. _‘Oh. That should have been obvious’_.

“Oh… um… sorry… uh how did that happen? I mean she doesn’t look like you at all.”

Ruby shook her head “Oh Em, you of all people should know that blood does not make a family. Granny took her in after her parents died and she became my big sister.”

“Oh. What happened to her parents?”

“Don’t know. She never really said other than that they died.”

“So what happened? I heard something about her leaving you yesterday.”  
  


“Eavesdropping, were you?” Ruby teased “She left pretty suddenly one day to train to become a knight. It was about the time Regina became queen. I’d never thought about it then, but seeing her now, I think there’s some history there that I didn’t know about before.”

Emma nodded “Well I walked in on them making out, so I know there’s at least something now.”

“And how do you feel about that?” Ruby questioned.

“What do you mean?”

Ruby crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t play dumb with me. I know you like Regina, I’ve smelled it on you a million times.”

Emma flushed and stuttered out “I… I love Killian… He’s my uh… happy ending”

“Do you really believe that?”

Emma stayed silent, knowing anything she said was going to be entirely unconvincing.

Ruby sighed “listen, this is not an easy situation for me, I mean, that’s my sister, and she’s in love. But you’re one of my best friends, and I don’t want to see you hurt either.” Ruby paused, shaking her head “You need to figure out what you want, before it’s too late. For everyone.”

Emma nodded, overwhelmed. “Yea, I guess I do. Thanks Ruby. I… I think I’m gonna head home.”

Emma left her tip and walked home, not looking forward to the sleepless night of thought she was destined for.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Renata led Regina through the in to the apartment Dorothy shared with Ruby “I’ve been staying with them until I get on my feet”

Regina nodded “I’m glad you found her. I was… honestly embarrassed I didn’t think to check for you here” she said, looking at the ground.

Renata opened the door and looked at her “Hey, no worries. It’s been a long time since you’ve thought about me at all. I’m not offended”

“But still… I should have known.”

“Maybe, but you’ve kept every promise you made to me, even without remembering them, so I won’t fault you for not knowing where to look for me. My question is why where you?”

“Why was I what?” Regina looked up at her.

“Looking for me”

Regina took a deep breath “We need to talk… about… well a lot really. But first of all, Emma and I are not together.”

“I see. But would you like to be?” Renata questioned, looking her deep in the eyes.

“Let’s take this to the couch” Regina responded, deflecting. They did so, Renata choosing one end and sitting sideways on it, and Regina chose the other side, folding her legs underneath her. “You mentioned that I kept my promises. I am afraid I cannot take credit for what the curse chose for people. Red and Granny were simply lucky.”

“I don’t believe that for a minute” Renata responded “From what I have seen and heard, almost every family was separated during the curse, while my family stayed together and was given a comfortable life and business. You may not have remembered me, but some part of you still took care of them.”

“Perhaps… I cannot be sure though”

“Of course.”

Regina took a deep breath and looked at the wall. “So much has happened… since you were gone. I am not proud of a lot of things I did, and I am so conflicted. It feels like everything that I’ve done, everything I became, was all based on a lie.” She closed her eyes, willing the tears away.

“Would you be willing to tell me about it? I know so much time has passed, but I want to know you, I want to know everything, no matter how hard it may be to hear.” Renata responded, wishing no more than to take Regina into her arms.

“I… I know I need to tell you everything, or at least as much as I can, but… gods, there’s 40 years of life and pain that I just learned was all based off a lie.” Regina cried out, burying her face in her hands as the tears finally came.

“Oh sweetheart… can I hold you?”

After a moment, Regina nodded, and Renata slid over on the couch to wrap her arms around Regina’s trembling form.

“We don’t have to talk about it today. I’m sure it’s a lot to take in, and I am sorry I didn’t seek you out earlier. I genuinely thought you were with Emma and I did not want to come between you and another.” Renata confessed, chin resting on Regina’s head and hand stroking down the side of her arm.

Turning her head into Renata’s neck, She responded “No, I… I want to. At least some of it. I know we can’t get to everything today… honestly I’m not sure we could get to it in two years”

Renata chuckled, content to hold the woman she loved for a while longer. Some time passed in silence, bodies molded around each other. Eventually Regina broke the silence “What… what was it like being trapped like that? And what woke you up?”

Renata took a deep breath and sighed “It was very lonely. I could feel time passing, but it also felt like I was just transfigured yesterday. It was… nauseating honestly. As for why I woke up, I have no idea. Maybe the potion had some sort of time limit?”

Regina raised her head from Renata’s shoulder and looked at her. “I don’t know… It doesn’t really seem like the King to give you, and me, a temporary punishment.” Regina bit her lip.

“You’re definitely right… as always” they both chuckled “But that does leave us a bit of a mystery as to what could have caused my return- not that I’m complaining”

“Me neither. I think that can wait for another day though.”

“Agreed.” Renata looked Regina deep in the eyes and smiled “I never thought I’d get to see your face again.” Regina looked slightly pained, not the reaction Renata was expecting. “What is it Gina? We haven’t really talked about, well… us yet.”

Regina looked away, suddenly taking great interest in a table lamp. “I know… and I know you must be so confused as to my behavior. Quite frankly I am myself to a certain degree.”

“Darling, you know that I will do whatever it takes, be whoever you need me to me. You don’t have to be with me just because we shared true love’s kiss, you know that right?”

Regina returned her gaze to Renata “We… don’t?” She questioned. She knew her behavior was out of character, her feigning nonchalance about her curse-breaking kiss, but she was truly scared. She had been subject to fate, destiny, and others’ wills all her life. Why should this be any different? Sure she wasn’t exactly happy with her life right before Renata’s return, but finally, for once, she wasn’t tied to anyone. First the King, then Robin. She never got to exactly choose for herself. Sure she could have chosen not to pursue Robin, but she was so desperate for happiness that she fell into it. And look how well that turned out. She had thought at the time that her dalliance with Renata behind the King’s back was the first thing she had truly done on her own, but then… it turns out they are true loves… _fate._ She wanted choice. She had gone without it for so long. But at the same time, she loved Renata, had for a very long time before she cursed herself. _Wait_ … _Rumpelstiltskin_ … Rumpelstiltskin gave her the potion, convinced her to take it. The loss of Renata was nothing more to him than another move in his plan.

“No, of course not” Renata finally responded, breaking Regina out of her winding thoughts. Regina blinked at her, clearly lost in the conversation. “We do not have to be together just because we share true love” Renata clarified. “But that is not what you are thinking about, was it?”

Regina nodded, embarrassed that she tuned out in such an important discussion.

“Will you tell me what you are thinking about?”

Regina nodded once more. “Well, this is part of that long, 40 year story and encompasses far more than those years, but the gist is, no decision I ever made in my young life was my own. Everything was manipulated by my mother and Rumple to suit their needs. Cora for power, Rumple for me to cast the dark curse. I’m thinking about what else they manipulated to get their way…”

Renata looked down, visibly upset at Regina’s words. After a few minutes she spoke. “I never told you what really happened to my parents.”

Regina’s heart fell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of a cliffhanger for you guys. Hopefully some things are starting to make sense. R&R have LOTS to talk about, and Emma has some major priorities to sort out. Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor warning for violence

“I’m just not in the mood tonight, Killian” Emma sighed, exasperated. She had just walked in the door and just wanted to sit on the couch and play some video games to occupy her head.

“You’re never in the mood, Swan!” Killian responded, bordering on yelling. “We haven’t had sex in weeks, I have needs!”

Emma ran a hand through her hair. “Just… I have a headache and a lot going on, it’ll get better soon” she responded, knowing full well that it probably wouldn’t.

Killian grumbled and walked to the fridge, pulling out another beer and uncapping it. He was already drunk and smelled like cheap beer and rum.

“And could you clean up around here sometime? It looks like a frat house in here” Emma added, looking around at all the empty bottles covering her coffee table.

Killian snarled at her and stalked upstairs, stomping his way up. Emma rolled her eyes and started picking up the trash. Once she had cleared the living room enough for it to be fit for human habitation, she sat down on the couch with a tumbler of whiskey and put on Friends, hoping to tame her explosive mood. She wondered if this was going to be her existence for the rest of her life, working all day and coming home to her jobless husband and cleaning up after him. Didn’t seem like that great of a happy ending after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_“Gina, Gina!!” The young girl shouted, “Look what I just taught Clavileño!”_

_“Ren, what have I told you about shouting? We can’t let mother know we are down here!” Regina responded in a harsh whisper, glancing over her shoulder cautiously._

_“Relax Gina, she can’t hear me, we are too far away from the estate” Renata responded, grinning at Regina._

_Regina sighed “But one of the guards might”, she added._

_“By that point they would have already seen and heard us jumping horses out here, Gina.”_

_Regina shivered “I guess you’re right”_

_Renata giggled “I’m never gonna let you forget saying that”_

_“You best remember it well because it won’t happen again” Regina retorted, feigning annoyance. Then she grinned at her riding companion. “Anyways, show me the jump” Regina requested._

_Renata ran her horse through the course she had made, Clavileño clearing every jump._

_Regina smiled “we both have such talented stallions” she remarked._

_“Both? Clavileño is yours too” Renata questioned._

_Regina shook her head “No, he’s yours. He has been yours for a long time, he just happens to stay at the stables with my family’s horses.”_

_Renata blinked “Are… are you giving me a horse?”_

_“I’ve already given him to you. The day we named him and Rocinante here.”_

_Renata smiled, she remembered the day well. Rocinante and Clavileño were twins. Rocinante was older by just a little bit, and Regina immediately took to him. Clavileño on the other hand, was a bit of a runt, and Renata made it her mission to see him thrive, even at her young age of 7 at the time. She and Regina had been connected at the hip for years at this point, and when Regina asked her to join her watching the birth of the foals, Renata couldn’t say no. She was glad she went, after all, she got a second loyal companion out of the deal. Now, five years later, Clavileño was as strong as could be, rivaling his older brother in the nightly jumping competitions she and Regina competed in regularly._

_As the girls had gotten older, Cora had taken less of a liking to Regina spending time with “the help” and made it much more difficult for the girls to see each other. With Renata’s parents working in the kitchens, she was added to the force, working grueling hours with little sleep. Still, she gave up what she had in order to come out every couple nights and ride with Regina._

_“We should probably head back, it’s getting pretty late.” Regina added._

_Still grinning, Renata nodded and directed Clavileño in the direction of the stables, Regina following right behind. They reached the stables and brushed down their horses before rejoining one another to walk back to the estate. When they reached the servant’s quarters, they parted in a hug before Regina continued on to her chambers. Renata watched her climb the stairs with a sad smile before turning to enter her room, attempting not to wake her roommate. She slipped in to the room in the darkness._

_“I believe I have warned you to stay away from my daughter” A voice loudly reprimanded, Renata jumped out of her skin. Suddenly, the room was illuminated. Cora stood there, with her parents bound and gagged, struggling behind her. Cora paced the room. “I simply cannot have the future queen galivanting around with a servant after hours.”_

_Renata folded, tears starting to stream down her face “Wha… what are you going to do?”_

_“Do not speak unless spoken to!” Cora was suddenly in front of Renata and backhanded her, leaving a bright red mark across her face. Renata’s parent’s eyes grew wide, and their strugging increased. “Now, as a result of your actions I must teach you a lesson on defying me, as I must also teach my daughter a lesson. Love is weakness. She has allowed herself to become much too fond of you. And therefore you may no longer be here.”_

_Renata was suddenly unable to move as she watched Cora stride over to her parents. She lifted up her mother by magic, holding her where Renata could see everything that was about to happen. Her mother looked over to where Renata was immobilized, looking deep in her eyes as an unspoken ‘I love you’. Suddenly a hand was plunged in her chest and removed, a bright red heart in Cora’s grasp. She turned to Renata and held the heart a few mere inches from her face. Unable to cry or scream, Renata was forced to watch as Cora slowly squeezed her mother’s life into dust._

_Renata thought she was about to fall over, but the magic held her in place. She knew without a doubt what was to happen next. After repeating the same treatment of her father, except dragging it out longer due to Renata’s fondness of her father, Cora stood in front of the girl, a cruel grin on her face. “Now, you will leave these lands and never come back. If you do, you will die thanks to a ward which I will cast in one candlemark. You will not see Regina, and If you try to contact her through letter, I will beat her 10 times for every attempt. Now go, and never return.”_

_Renata was suddenly released from her magical bindings and fell to the floor before crawling over to her parent’s lifeless bodies and crying over them. She knew she did not have much time to grieve, however, as she took Cora’s threat seriously. Her parents would not want her to die in vain grief over them. She gathered herself and walked over to her chest, packing her few belongings before exiting the complex. She looked up to Regina’s window, hoping to watch one last glimpse of her. When she saw no light from the window, she continued walking down the path before reaching the stables. After thinking it over for a minute, she entered them and saddled Clavileño. She attached her pack to him and mounted him. Taking one last look to Regina’s window, a tear ran down her face and she kneed Clavileño into a gallop, knowing she had to hurry if she was to reach the edge of the property by the time Cora stated._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_

By the time Renata finished recounting her story, Regina once again had her face buried in Renata’s neck, sobbing. “Shh, my darling, it was a long time ago.”

Regina just sobbed louder. Anyone outside of them would have seen this outburst of emotion from the Mayor astounding. The stone-faced mayor never broke down like this. Ever. But with Renata, it was a whole different story. They had so much history between them that even now, 40 years late, Regina has no qualms about showing her emotions to her former lover and best friend. Their bond could not be broken with time.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. From the sounds of it, this was just one more manipulation on a long list for Cora” Renata added after a while.

“I.. it’s different” Regina sobbed

“Why?”

Regina sighed and lifted her head a little to look Renata in the eyes. “Up until now, I thought she really only messed with the course of my life. I guess… I never really thought about what she might have also done to other people. Even with Zelena, her antics were restricted to the two of us.”

“Zelena is back?”

Regina blinked. “Wait, you knew Zelena?”

“Of course, the three of us were thick as thieves until she disappeared and you never talked about her again.” Renata thought for a second “Ahh. Once again Cora’s doing. That makes much more sense now.”

“We can go see her sometime if you’d like” Regina responded “I’m sure she’d be happy to see you now that I think about it”

“I’d like that” Renata smiled “how is she doing?”

Regina smirked “well, it is quite the long story, but in short she is happily raising her daughter”

Renata quirked an eyebrow “I look forward to hearing that story”

“There is much you have missed” Regina pursed her lips “maybe we could try to get together regularly and try to catch up on each other. I’m afraid I will probably be doing a lot of the catching up since, well…”

Renata smiled “I’d like that, Gina.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll admit I struggled a bit with this chapter, I hope the next one will be better for you guys. Also, I was a bit conflicted on how I wanted to move forward, and with that in mind, as of the next chapter, the rating will be moving up to Mature with added warnings of violence and non/con. Nothing too graphic, as I have no intention of writing a graphic rape scene, but issues relating to it will be addressed. Once again, thank you for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

A few days later, it was an average Friday night for Emma. Well, not really. Tonight she had plans of leaving Killian. She had done her thinking and her crying and decided that even if she didn’t get Regina in the end, she wasn’t happy with Killian and wanted a new start. Truth be told, she had only married Killian because she thought she was going to die immediately after. A promise of forever is so much easier to make when you believe that ‘forever’ is only a matter of hours. Without the threat of the final battle and her inevitable death in the cards, she doubted she ever would have brought herself to go through with the nuptials. Tonight though, she was finally making a choice for herself. Killian could go find his happy ending somewhere else, with another woman who wasn’t made miserable by his habits.

She was broken out of her train of thought by the front door being pulled open then slammed. Her husband, for sure. Killian stumbled into the living room, clearly drunk off his ass, and leered at Emma for a moment before attempting to make his way over to her. Emma closed her eyes for a moment. She did not like dealing with him like this. He was always bordering on violent when he was this drunk and didn’t take rejection of his advances well. He never had, but it was especially bad when he was hammered. There was no way Emma was sleeping with him tonight though. She might just puke if she had to lie under him one more time.

“Killian, sit down, we need to talk. I would have preferred have this conversation with you sober, but it looks like I don’t have a choice.”

He sat down next to her and leered at her “Of course you have a choice Swan, let’s go have some fun and we can talk tomorrow.” He smirked and started to reach for her.

“Not going to happen” she dodged his hand and scooted away from him on the couch.

He scoffed “you haven’t had sex with me in weeks and keep denying me. It is your duty as my wife to keep me satisfied” he slurred out.

“Yea… about that, I’m leaving you.” She interrupted and started to stand.

Hook’s demeanor changed “What do you mean ‘leaving me’?”

“I. Am. Leaving. You” she punctuated. “We are getting a divorce.”

“No we are not, you can’t do that.”

Emma scoffed “yes, yes I can.”

“Sorry love, but in the enchanted forest, there is no such thing unless the husband requests it”

“Well guess what, we are not in the enchanted forest, and here you don’t own me”

Hook chuckled “of course I do, maybe you’ve just forgotten.” He jumped up, surprisingly steadily, and lunged for Emma. Not expecting it, she couldn’t move quick enough and he caught her arm with his good hand and yanked her back. He spun her and pinned her to the couch, ripping at her shirt with his hook while his hand held her down at the shoulder. Emma froze and found herself unable to fight back. Hook chuckled darkly and switched his hands, his hook pinning her down at the neck while he fumbled with her jeans and the laces on his own pants. Emma closed her eyes and the tears started to fall, feeling him against her. All the sudden, emotion took over her and she felt the air change around her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Renata sighed as she walked the castle halls. Having just finished her first week on the Queen’s personal guard, she was exhausted. She made her way towards the kitchens for an evening meal, but paused, seeing the King’s guard stationed outside the Queen’s chambers. It was about two candlemarks past sundown, and she hadn’t known the King to visit Queen Regina’s chambers after court like today.

Her musing was broken by what sounded like a scream coming from the chambers. Renata jumped into action, heading towards the doors, assuming the King’s guard to follow, but instead they blocked her way with a grunt. She looked up at them, jaw slack, and heard a sob from inside the chambers along with a grunt. _Now that sound she knew._ She knew she would have to find another way in.

She backed away from the guards and turned, heading back to the barracks, mostly for the benefit of the guards posted at the door. However, instead of entering, she continued past the door and into the study next to it. The intended purpose was for the men (and woman) of the guard to write home, but today it would be used for a different purpose: forgery. One skill Renata had become well versed in during her months as a waif. She quickly wrote an official- sounding letter, about a possible spy ready to strike in a nearby village and signed it in the Count’s name. knowing time was of the essence, she returned to the barracks and quickly changed clothes and hairstyle to be unrecognizable to enough of the staff to make her plan work. From there, she went to the small window at the end of the barracks and was quite thankful to be the only one present as she crawled through the window and scaled the walls using the masonry and vegetation that had taken to this part of the castle over the decades.

She ran to the front entrance of the castle, playing the part of a messenger from the local Count. Renata prayed to the gods this would work, and showed the crest she had carved in the wax seal to the guards at the front gate, hoping they did not recognize her with her hair down and in peasant rags. They seemed to buy it, and waved her in. She was able to pass the letter to the King’s messenger, with advisement that the matter was urgent. She hoped that this would be enough to warrant an interruption to the King’s ‘ _activities’_ for the night.

The moment she had heard that scream, Renata had felt a pit grow in her stomach. Dread. Dread like she had only felt once before. Her parent’s death was the only thing she could compare to what the King had to be doing to the Queen. _No. Not just the Queen. Regina._ Regina was strong. She was not one to scream, or cry, or show much of anything to others unless she cared about them. Even with their history, while Regina had put in a word to have Renata put on her personal guard, she did not talk to her. They had truly barely interacted. Renata could see that Regina was a shell of the girl she once knew, and perhaps now she knew why.

She came back to the barrack’s wall and scaled it once again, the ascent being a bit more difficult than the descent, but she made it up in record time nonetheless. Renata quickly tied her hair up and suited into her guard uniform. She exited the barracks through the door and silently came to the corner of the hallway, peering around it to see the door to the Queen’s chambers. The messenger and the guards were talking, all three participants looking agitated. Eventually, as Renata’s heart beat harder and harder in fear, one of the guards turned to knock on the door. She could not hear the words said, but there was a brief exchange and then a pause where the guards returned to position, but the messenger did not leave. After a few moments, the door to the chambers opened, revealing the King. The group turned and walked away from Renata and toward a planning room.

Renata let out a deep breath she did not know she was holding and watched until they turned the corner together. Then she raised from the spot she was kneeling and made her way to the door, still quiet as to not draw any attention. She opened the door just barely without knocking and slipped inside. The Queen’s quarters consisted of a living room, bedroom, and rather lavish washroom. The door from the hallway led to the living room, and Renata made her way to the door leading to the bedroom. She knocked on it four times, a space between the second and third knocks; a code from their childhood that indicated her identity, and slowly opened the door.

“Gina?” she spoke quietly, hearing soft sobs from inside. She closed her eyes; a single tear fell down her cheek as she prepared herself for what she might see. Receiving no response, but no discouragement, Renata took a deep breath and slid in, turning to close the door behind her before removing her helmet and slowly turning. She willed herself not to break down at the sight and had to close her eyes again to manage.

“Gina” She said again, her voice breaking despite her every attempt to keep it steady. Regina did not respond but turned her head towards Renata. “Can I approach?” Renata continued.

A small smile attempted to grace Regina’s lips and she rasped “always”.

Renata smiled sadly and walked the few paces to be at Regina’s bedside. This offered her a full view of Regina laid out of the bed. She was completely naked, lying on her back, but that was not the jarring part. Regina was covered in bruises. Her wrists, her neck, her hips, and even her legs were marred by these spots. Some appeared a few days old, while others were just starting to bloom. Occasional cuts striped her body, across her breasts and stomach, along her legs, and judging based off the state of her sheets, her back was not spared either. She refused to look at the space between Regina’s legs, not sure she could stomach the confirmation of the fact that the King got off on his treatment of Regina. The Queen had still not met Renata’s eyes, staring off in the distance with tears still welling in her eyes. Renata looked up for a moment to keep her own from falling.

“What can I do, Gina?” She knew what she wanted to do, and what she was ever so tempted to do. She wanted to kill the bastard, cut off his manhood and let him bleed out slowly like the animal he is.

“Bath” Regina weakly responded. Renata nodded, standing slowly. The baths in the castle were fed by a hot spring, meaning they were constantly flowing with warm water. Regina’s was built somewhat like a roman bath, large and about four feet deep, with stone steps lining the descent into its depths. Renata looked down at Regina, looking for confirmation, and received a tiny nod. She leaned down and gathered the nude Regina in her arms, bridal style. Regina wrapped her hands around Renata’s neck, loosely clasping them behind it.

Renata carried her easily, her toned body and 6-foot frame dwarfed the Queen’s own. She entered the washroom and walked towards the bath. She had looked straight ahead the entire time she carried the Queen, unable to look down at the body in her arms for fear she would break, and either her anguish or anger would come through. She remained staring blankly ahead, tears still pooled in her eyes, as she walked Regina down the steps and into the bath, with no concern for her entire uniform becoming drenched. She sat on the bottom step, Regina still in her arms, when the Queen sat up in her grip and latched on closer, head buried in neck, as she sobbed. Renata finally broke down, holding the body in her arms tight around the waist and crying into her hair. Eventually, Renata pressed a soft kiss in Regina’s dark locks and murmured “let’s get you cleaned up”. Regina nodded in her neck in response.

Renata reached and retrieved a sponge along with some soap from a basket nest to the bath. She slowly began to wash Regina, mindful of her many cuts and bruises. Regina melted into her touch and eventually asked “shouldn’t you take this off?” pulling at her armor.

“If that is okay with you.”

Regina nodded, finally sliding off her lap and onto the step next to her. Renata rose and stepped out of the bath, quickly stripping down under Regina’s gaze before returning to her side. Regina had felt a deep desire watching Renata undress, lean muscles gradually revealed to her. To say Renata was ripped would be an understatement. However, there were a few additions to her appearance that Regina was previously unaware of.

“When did you get these?” Regina asked, gesturing to her tattoos. There was a grey wolf with a striking green gaze covering her left arm. In the background was a forest scene with a full moon visible at the top of her arm. On her right forearm was a tree, the ground cutting across with a view of the roots. Surrounding the tree was a snake coiled in the shape of an ouroboros.

“I got the wolf not long after joining the army. The other I got a few years before.” Renata responded, no offering any further information.

Regina nodded, gently reaching out to stroke the tree on the arm next to her.

“You know what that is, right?”

The Queen looked at her, curious. “A tree?”

Renata chuckled “well… Yes. But what tree?”

Regina looked back down at the tattoo, thinking. “My apple tree? You got a tattoo of my apple tree?”

Renata nodded, humming. “The snake stands for eternity and is guarding the tree, just as I will guard you for the rest of my days.”

“But… why?” Regina asked, tears starting in her eyes once again.

Renata looked at her deeply. “I think you know why.”

Regina’s gaze passed back and forth between her eyes and lips, before slowly reaching up and pulling Renata down to meet her in a soft kiss.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hook's actions come to light, R&R take care of Emma in the aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings still apply for aftermath of non-con. A bit of well deserved graphic violence in this chapter, but things start to look up for SQ.

“I can’t believe someone would do that!” Renata exclaimed, gaping at Regina. Regina had just finished recounting the story of her and Robin, specifically the encounter in her vault with Marian frozen in the next room.

Regina groaned “ugh, and I can’t believe I went along with it” she responded. She really didn’t. Why on earth had she thought that was a good idea?

“Fairy dust really did a number on you, huh?” Renata added, smirking just a little.

Regina buried her face in her hands and groaned again “I should have let it be when I didn’t go in that stupid tavern in the first place”

Renata chuckled, grateful for the easy companionship her old friend offered. She was merely teasing her, and Regina knew that. Sometimes it was like they had never spent a day apart, but at the same time Renata mourned that time in regret that she couldn’t watch out for Regina, especially in the cases of married forest men. They had fallen into a calm routine. Renata came over for dinner a few times a week, they shared a bottle of wine or some cider, and Regina regaled her with tales of the time she missed.

Regina looked up at her with a grin and curled into her side. They hadn’t taken anything further than that. As far as Regina was concerned they were taking things slow and getting to know each other again before picking up where they left off before. Renata though, well she was not convinced. She had always been a quite observant person and was quite sure they were headed for nothing more than great friendship. She had seen the looks passed between her Queen and the sheriff, and she knew full well what they meant. Renata was hardly the jealous ex-lover type. She loved Regina so deeply, and knew the feeling was mutual, thanks to their true love kiss, but she had no requirement for a romantic aspect to their relationship. She was perfectly happy with their love for each other being plutonic. However, Regina hadn’t seemed to reach that conclusion, despite Renata’s insistence that they did not need to be together to love each other, as evidenced by Regina suddenly reaching up to meet her lips, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Surprised, Renata froze, eyes wide. Regina quickly realized that Renata was not kissing her back and pulled away, eyebrows knit together in hurt.

“Ren?” Regina questioned, looking into her grey eyes.

Renata gave a sad smile “come here” she said to Regina, before gathering her in her arms. Renata buried her head in dark locks before speaking softly to Regina “You know I love you, and I always will, but I think, at least for right now, I would only like to hold you.” She compromised, after seeing the hurt in Regina’s expression.

After a minute, Regina nodded into her neck, breathing in Renata. They were having a nice night, until she went and tried to make it into something it was not. Like usual. Regina’s head swam, but she was grateful for the strong arms around her. She pulled back and grabbed for Renata’s right arm, pushing the sleeve on her black shirt up to look at the tattoo she knew was hidden there. She hadn’t seen it in so many years, the cold Maine weather requiring Renata to wear long sleeves all the time. They were both dressed very casually tonight, a sight Regina reserved for very few. She was wearing black leggings and an oversized sweatshirt emblazoned with Disney’s animated Evil Queen, a gag gift from Emma a few years back for her birthday. She scoffed at it upon receiving it, but it was rather comfortable so she wore it, but only in the comfort of her own home. Alone. Or with Renata. Renata had on some light wash skinny jeans with her loose black long sleeved t-shirt.

“Let’s watch a movie Gina.” Renata suggested after a while. A large part of these regular meetups between the two of them was to educate Renata on the world she now lived in. She quickly became a fan of movies, and Regina was more than happy to cultivate her knowledge in that regard, especially when it meant hours spent with the taller woman.

About an hour in, their movie viewing was interrupted by a loud crash coming from somewhere upstairs. Regina latched onto Ren in surprise, and the other woman gave her a squeeze and went to get up.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Regina questioned, looking up at the blond who was now standing up and towering over her more than usual.

“Ummm… Going to check that out?” Renata responded, pointing a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the noise.

“Gods you are so like Emma” Renata mumbled, shaking her head.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. You are not going alone, end of discussion.”

Renata’s eyes widened “Oh.. Uhh okay.. I am not exactly used to you following me into danger my Queen” she added the moniker to remind her.

Regina shook her head “Right. I guess I was more of the innocent damsel type at the time.”

“Just a little bit” Renata smiled at her. “Anyways, let’s get moving.”

In all honesty, they were not all that concerned with the noise. Anyone idiotic enough to break into the mayoral mansion had it coming with two extremely powerful women inside. They cursed their nonchalance, however, when faced with the passed out form lying in the foyer.

“Em.. EMMA?!” Regina screamed, running up the half-flight of stairs to the entryway of her house. Renata followed immediately behind her, taking in a deep breath at the sight before her. Regina was already leaning down over the blonde’s form, tears in her eyes as she looked up to Renata, gaping. Renata joined her, kneeling on the other side, and touched Emma’s cheek gently, receiving a groan from the woman.

“Emma, dear, I need to clean you up and move you. May I?” She asked permission. Her prior experience left no doubt in her mind what had or was about to transpire. Regina was too shocked to do or say anything, she just looked back and forth between the two blondes before her. Emma’s eyes fluttered, and she nodded weakly. With a solemn expression, Renata slipped one arm under Emma’s back and the other behind her knees and lifted up. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply for a moment, memories of another life fighting for attention in her mind. She had to stay focused on the present. Take care of Emma. Take care of Emma. She repeated this in her head as she climbed the other flight of stairs leading up to the bedrooms with Regina following right behind them. Without having to ask, she made her way to the master at the end of the hall, laying Emma down gently on the king size bed. Emma was struggling with consciousness, barely registering what was happening.

“Gina, can you get a set of pajamas and underwear?” Renata asked calmly as she walked into the en suite. Regina’s eyes widened at the second part of the request before scrambling to find nightwear that Emma would wear, eventually settling on a loose t-shirt that had once belonged to Henry and a pair of flannel lounge pants before heading to her underwear drawer and sheepishly pulling out a new, plain pair. She exited her closet to find Renata returning to the bedroom with a wet cloth, a pair of scissors, and a blank expression. Regina gulped and walked over to her, meeting her at the side of the bed and laying down the small stack of clothing. Renata glanced at it and nodded. There were no words to be said. Regina moved her gaze to the smaller blonde and a wave of emotions overtook her as the tears that had been threatening to fall finally did. She had never seen the woman looking so defeated, so… weak. Emma was staring blankly at the ceiling. Renata had not touched her or her clothing yet, so it was in the same state that they had found her in the foyer. Her jeans were undone and shoved just down below her hips with her panties bunched up a little but still on. Her upper body was where the damage really was evident. Her shirt was ripped open and her bra all but torn apart, hanging loosely against her body. Most unnerving was a single cut flowing red down the center of her body, starting at her breastbone and ending just above her belly button. Around her neck there were dark bruises coloring.

Regina walked to the other side of the bed and climbed on to it, settling next to Emma on her side before reaching over to touch her cheek gently. This time Emma immediately flinched and the pain in Regina’s heart doubled. She spoke, breaking the silence.

“Sweetheart, look at me”

Emma did, half in confusion over the term of endearment Regina had just used for her. She reached out again, this time Emma did not flinch away.

“Ren is going to clean you up and get you changed into something more comfortable, but she is going to have to touch you dear.” Regina closed her eyes for a moment before continuing. “Is that okay?”

Emma, still having not said a word since her arrival at the mansion, slowly looked over to where Renata was sitting on the side of the bed near her hips, looked her up and down, and slowly nodded. Renata nodded back before standing up and turning around to begin. Emma closed her eyes and her face scrunched before she opened her eyes again, this time with tears filling them.

“Oh darling” Regina whispered before gently guiding Emma’s face back to her. Emma held her gaze and glanced at her lips before Regina reached up and kissed her softly on the forehead. She looked down at Renata, who was unbuttoning the last two buttons that had been spared, before reaching for the scissors and cutting up the length of the sleeves so that Emma did not have to get up in order for her to remove it. She also doubted Emma would have any desire to repair the shirt to wear ever again. The removal of the shirt revealed another large bruise forming on her arm in the shape of a handprint. Once the shirt was removed, all Renata had to do was snip the one remaining bra strap for the garment to fall away. At this point, Regina’s hand had traveled down to hold Emma’s right hand and she felt the shiver when the last garment fell away, not that it was covering her in the slightest.

“She will not hurt you, I promise. Ren is going to start cleaning the cuts now, and she will touch as little as possible. I promise.” Regina assured her. More tears fell from Emma’s eyes but she nodded and squeezed Regina’s hand. Regina looked over to Renata and nodded, signaling her to continue. Renata reached over and squeezed Regina’s shoulder for just a second of reassurance. She took the warm cloth that she had wet and slowly cleaned the blood from Emma’s torso so she could get a better look at the damage. She looked up at Regina before breaking her silence quietly.

“Gina, do you have any of the salve that… that we used to use?” she asked as quietly, trying not to frighten Emma. Regina took a deep breath and thought.

“I have a little, it is in my vault.” Regina responded with a frown. She did not want to leave Emma for a second, but the ancient salve would take away the pain and help heal the damage from the cuts on her torso and anything else they came across when Renata fully undressed Emma.

Renata nodded, knowing exactly what Regina was thinking about. “Would Zelena be able to find it?” She offered an alternative plan.

Regina blinked, not thinking of that option. “Yes, yes I believe she would.”

“Okay, I will be right back.” She rose slowly and left to call Zelena. The relationship between the two sisters had been greatly improved in the time Renata had been back. The three had been close in their childhood, and Renata had been helping the two see eye-to eye.

“This isn’t the first time she has done something like this, is it?” Emma’s question made her jump, breaking out of her musing. She turned her gaze from the doorway Renata had left from to her friend and took a heavy breath before confirming.

“No, no it is not.” Regina said, voice breaking partway through. Emma reached out to cup Regina’s face, unconcerned with her nudity. She looked in her eyes, questions in her gaze. Regina did not need to confirm anything else, Emma knew. She hadn’t shared the reality of her marriage to the King with anyone. No one in town knew until Renata returned.

“I’m glad you had her.” Emma whispered, glancing at the open doorway where they could faintly hear Renata on the phone with Zelena downstairs.

“Me too” Regina smiled, giving Emma’s hand a squeeze back. “She helped me through a really rough time… I… I honestly don’t know if the Evil Queen would have been born if I hadn’t lost my memories about her” she frowned. “I really was a different person before she was gone. I guess I hadn’t ever really thought about it” She quirked the corner of her mouth in an apologetic manner, thinking about all the devastation that would have been avoided if things had gone differently.

Emma reached around with her left hand that was previously at her side to caress Regina’s face and look deeply in her eyes.

“Emma, I… I hate to ask you this… But we need to know. Who did this?” Regina asked hesitantly.

Emma swallowed, about to answer before they heard yells come from down the hallway.

“I take it that is them” Regina answered. Emma nodded. “Well, I think I should go help Ren.” Emma nodded again. “I’ll be right back, I promise.” She pulled a blanket up and over Emma before kissing her once again on the forehead before sliding off the bed and storming out of the bedroom and closing the door, sweet demeanor quickly sliding away for the fury that replaced it.

“Oh fuck you, bastard!” Regina paused as she heard the screamed words, undoubtedly from Renata. She shook her head and pressed on, pausing again upon witnessing the scene on her stairs. Renata grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him back before throwing him to the ground and straddling him. Regina gasped upon recognition of Killian and threw herself into the pile, grabbing onto Renata’s arm and stopping it from promptly meeting Killian’s face.

“Stop Ren! That’s Emma’s husband!” she cried. Renata turned to her, fire in her eyes.

“I know who it is” she spit out, before succeeding in pulling her arm away from Regina and striking Killian, a crunch of bone and a yell as the result.

“You bitch! You broke my face!”

Renata laughed darkly “Oh you wish that was all I am going to do to you” a cruel sneer pulling across her face as Regina watched in horror.

“Ren, what is going on here?” Regina asked, still gaping at her friend who rose, effortlessly pulling Killian along by the shirt collar and threw him against the wall, pinning him by the neck.

“What do you say, pirate? Want to tell the Mayor what you are doing here?” She leaned right into his face, punctuating the end of her sentence with an increase of pressure on his neck that had him struggling to breathe.

“My deluded wife seems to be under the impression that she can merely decide not to be married to me any longer” he snarled, mouth full of blood and choking as Renata cut off his air once again.

“Well, technically she can” Regina responded flatly.

“I am her husband, I say what she can or cannot do.” Killian said, far too smugly for his current position “I knew she would run off here, she has been rather uncooperative these last few weeks” He finished

“Run off here? You were with her right before she came here?” Regina asked already knowing the answer and dreading it.

“Quite frustrating that was, vanishing before she pleased me.” Killian spat.

Regina swayed for a moment before regaining her composure. “Right. Well. Renata if you would refrain from killing him at this very moment and tie him down somewhere, I will have the sheri- erhh, the deputy come bring him in.

Renata, still enjoying inflicting pain on the man, did not move at her commands, obviously wishing to dispose of him herself.

“Ren, that’s not how we do things here. Please restrain him and join me back upstairs.” Regina added, firmly. She knew she needed to discuss her behavior later, this sudden switch from gentle caregiver to violent executioner. She also knew that Ren would not actually disobey her, no matter how much she wanted to beat the man to a pulp. She hating taking advantage of the way Renata was programmed to obey her, but Emma was more important and the sooner they could take care of her the better. She knew Ren would understand. She turned and walked back up the stairs to check on Emma and hopefully they could get her properly cleaned up before David got there to pick up Killian. She knew explaining the situation would be less than pleasant, especially since Emma would most likely not want her father to know what had taken place. She took a deep breath and softly opened her bedroom door.

Regina slid into the room. Emma had removed the rest of her clothing and was holding herself in the fetal position, somewhat covered by the blanket Regina had placed over her. Regina quietly walked over and retrieved the washcloth Renata had used earlier and took it to the bathroom to rinse it out and saturate it with warm water once again.

“Renata is getting him restrained right now. What would you like to tell your father when he comes to take him in?” She asked, resuming Renata’s previous work and cleaning up the newly revealed blood on Emma’s thighs with the removal of the rest of her clothing.

Emma whimpered “Just… just don’t tell him it was me.” Regina nodded. Satisfied with her work, Regina reached over and picked up the pile of clothes set aside earlier.

“Okay dear. I will need a little help for this part” she looked at her with as much of an understanding smile as she manage. She imagined it probably looked more like a grimace.

Emma nodded and unfolded her self, lifting up as Regina brought the underwear and then lounge pants over her hips, and held up her arms for the Captain America t-shirt Regina had chosen. Once dressed, she turned away from Regina on her side and curled back into her previous position. Regina looked over her somberly and placed her hand over her upper arm for a moment before standing to find Renata.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Renata ended up helping David bring Hook into the station, him being too violent and unfortunately revealing exactly what he was doing earlier and to whom, despite her best efforts to follow Emma’s wishes as given to her by Regina. Regina had convinced her that Emma was taken care of and that the two of them would be fine for Renata to help out David. She was also to act as bodyguard to keep David from killing the man who assaulted his daughter. She would have much preferred join in on the fun than stop it, but she followed Regina’s wishes. She was just now walking back into the mansion on Mifflin, David gave her a ride back after booking Hook. Regina had given her a key after their second dinner, but this was the first time she was actually using it, still knocking and waiting to be let in all the other times. She would have done the same, but she did not want to wake up either of the women if they had, in fact, been able to go to sleep in the time she was gone. She looked at her phone and sighed. 2:30 am. She really hoped they were asleep.

She now had the healing salve from Zelena, who had met her at the station with it, and thankfully knew better than to ask questions. While she would life to get Emma started on it tonight, she did not want to wake her to do it and therefore would wait until morning if she was asleep.

She trudged up the stairs and headed to the master, peeking in. She smiled at the scene she saw. Both women were fast asleep on top of the covers, Regina holding the blonde tight, blonde hair buried in the crook of her neck. Renata tiptoed into the room and grabbed the blanket, pulling it over both of them. Regina whimpered, then flinched. _Shit_. She knew this might happen, the events of the night pulling back old memories for the two of them. Well, old memories for Regina. For Renata, the events were mere weeks ago. She felt ashamed for the way she lost control on Hook. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but that wasn’t who she is. She doesn’t explode on people. Every day at the old castle, she had wanted to do the very thing she had earlier tonight, except to the King. She couldn’t, of course. Not without getting herself and likely Regina killed in the process at least. She sighed before sitting next to Regina and trying to slowly rouse her, praying to all the gods that Emma would sleep through this.

“Gina, darling.” She whispered, holding onto her shoulder. Regina woke with a gasp, but did not flail out like she sometimes used to. “You were having a nightmare.”

Regina nodded before croaking “Thank you” and looking over to the other blonde in her bed before glancing back at Renata who smiled softly at her.

“I am going to stay here tonight. I don’t want to leave either of you” Regina nodded in agreement. “I’ll be right down the hall but I will leave both doors open so I can hear you two alright?” Regina smiled weakly, grateful, and nodded once more. Renata’s lips quirked up again “Sleep well, Gina. I’ll see you in the morning and don’t hesitate to come get me okay?”

“Okay” she confirmed. Renata got up from the bed and softly walked over to the doorway, taking one last glance at the two women holding each other, Regina already back asleep.

_Maybe something good can come out of this after all,_ she thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this was a bit of a heavy chapter, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. I did write this partially on my experience with PTSD, which I unfortunately was diagnosed with a few years ago. Essentially both R&R have it, but the difference in time between the events and the present for each of them is allowing me to play with different stages of mental disorder and their relative stability. Yet again, I'd love to hear your thoughts and also would like your opinions on working in a season 7ish storyline to this fic. It will make the story significantly longer if I do that, so I am wondering if anyone would be interested.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The women talk, and Emma and Renata become closer

Emma groaned and stretched before realizing two things. One: everything hurt. Two: someone was holding her and it definitely was not the man she married. Killian had never once held her like this. Yesterday was nothing but a blur. The person holding her let out a light moan and nuzzled further into her hair and then she remembered. _Regina._ Regina was holding her last night when she fell asleep, and it must be her holding her now. She was largely relieved, except for the fact that moan did things to her and now she really did not want to get up and escape this little bubble.

Emma laid peacefully in Regina’s arms for several minutes before the other woman began to stir. She let out a cross between a groan and a moan and Emma swore it was the hottest thing she had ever heard. _Stop that. Your asshole of a husband is in jail for attacking you and all you can think about is how sexy your best friend is._ The tears had started flowing again thinking of last night. Killian’s aggression, the reasons for her wanting to leave him in the first place, and the selfless actions of Regina and her friend, who she could see becoming her own friend too. In all her thoughts, she failed to notice Regina had fully woken up, and was gently stroking her arm as she cried.

“Darling, it’s over, you will never have to go back. Okay?” She said softly.

Emma rolled onto her back so that she was practically under Regina, and the hand that was caressing her arm moved to wipe her tears. After a while, she nodded, even though it was far from over. Regina smiled and squeezed her shoulder.

“I think Ren is making some breakfast, we better join her before she eats everything she cooks.” Regina rolls her eyes.

Emma chuckled. _Yeah, I think we could get along_ , She mused.

Regina pulled the sheets back from over the two of them and nudged Emma to get up. They were both crammed on one side of the bed, Emma next to the edge. Regina slid out of the bed after her and Emma looked at her with wide eyes.

“What?” Regina looked down at herself, thinking there was something out of place and just saw her sleeping clothes, all completely on.

“Uhh, sorry. Just didn’t expect you to sleep like that.” Emma admitted. Regina was wearing plaid lounge pants and a white tank top, which admittedly did not leave much to the imagination.

Regina rolled her eyes. “Well, truth be told I prefer to sleep naked, but that habit was killed the moment Henry came to get me after a nightmare and I had to get him to leave the room first. And there is nothing more disturbing to teenage boys than their mother sleeping in lingerie.”

Emma blinked for a second, brain still stuck on the very first piece of information. She nodded, finally catching up. “Yeah” she croaked, “I can see why that would be a problem”

Regina smirked before turning and striding out of the room toward the kitchen. Emma followed a few seconds behind. Upon arrival the two were met with the smell of bacon and the sight of Renata dancing around the kitchen to Beyoncé. Emma snickered and Regina nudged her arm to keep quiet before losing her composure and giggling. Renata turned, wide eyed, and joined their laughter.

“Hey, I can’t be a badass all the time!” She exclaimed in between fits of giggles.

Still chuckling, Regina continues into the kitchen and gave the woman a light hug. “I’m glad you’re doing better, but we do need to talk.” She murmured quietly before looking her meaningfully in the eyes. Renata’s face fell a little bit. She did not want to talk about her thoughts or actions last night but knew Regina was not going to let her shove it under a rug. She met her eyes and stiffly nodded before hugging her tighter and releasing her, turning to flip the pancakes she was also cooking.

At this point Emma knew there was so much history she didn’t know, and chose not to question the interaction, as it didn’t involve her and she had made false assumptions before regarding the nature of their relationship. She knew there was pain, but she needed to wait until one of them opened up on their own.

“Emma, if you want to grab drinks, we’ll be done here in just a moment” Regina called over, having turned her attention to the bacon as Renata flipped pancakes onto plates. “Ren will have orange juice” she added.

Grateful for the distraction, Emma went to fix the coffee for herself and Regina that Renata had started and poured a glass of juice for Renata. She set them out on the kitchen island and sat behind her own. After a minute, Renata and Regina joined her with plates of food. Her own was piled high with pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. They ate mostly in silence, enjoying the easy company around them.

Emma had lots of thoughts around Renata the past few weeks, especially after last night. “So… I have some questions.” The two women glanced at each other before nodding for Emma to continue. “So when we found you, you were missing your heart, right?” Renata nodded. “And Regina had it, right?” She nodded again. “I guess my question is: Why? Why did she take your heart when clearly you meant so much to her?” Both the other women took a deep breath and Renata gave Regina’s hand a quick squeeze, signaling that she would answer this one.

“It truly is a long story, but in short, I gave it willingly.” Emma raised an eyebrow “We… we thought it would save me from whatever punishment was decided”

“Decided for what?” Emma prodded.

Renata sighed, about to speak when Regina chimed in “We… had an intimate relationship back in the Enchanted Forest, but unfortunately I happened to be married to the King. He found out about it and was less than thrilled as I’m sure you can imagine. I think he was even less happy that it was with a woman and had gone on under his nose for quite a long time” She gulped.

Renata continued “I was imprisoned, but Regina snuck down to the dungeons to see me. We were sure that I was to be executed. That was the usual punishment for my crimes against the crown.” She bit her lip before looking to Regina.

“I had just started learning dark magic with Rumple, and I honestly hadn’t gone very far. With Ren there I was pretty happy and she did her best to defend me. We came up with the idea that maybe if I took her heart while she was living, she either wouldn’t die or maybe I could use that enchanted heart to bring her back. A heart taken from the living is much stronger than a heart taken from the dead. So, I went to Rumpelstiltskin and demanded he teach me how to take a heart. The lesson was… traumatic to say the least, but nevertheless I learned what I needed to and snuck my way back down to the dungeons before Renata’s sentencing. I took her heart and stored it away in a box that represented her, and she was taken away for execution.”

Renata continued the story “Except it wasn’t an execution, at least not in the traditional sense. They transfigured me into a tree, as you saw.”

“With our plan useless… I didn’t know what to do and I was devastated. Rumple came and found me and convinced me to curse my memories away with a potion, which we then broke with… true loves kiss…” Regina murmured the last part, as that was a bit of a stumbling block as far as she was concerned.

Emma nodded following along with the story. “Why didn’t you try to change her back? I mean obviously you are able to.”

Regina glanced at Ren “I was very early in my studies. On top of that, her punishment was done with light magic, I am guessing courtesy of the blue fairy. I never thought myself capable of light magic until a few years ago, as you well know. It is very complicated to undo light magic with dark magic, and by the time I had the prowess to attempt, I didn’t even remember she’d existed.” Regina finished sadly.

Ren looked downwards, thinking about all the events that lead them to the present. She sighed.

Regina stood. “I am going to head to the shower, I trust you two can pick up here.” And with that she turned to leave.

Once she was gone Emma turned to Renata “So what’s the real reason you two aren’t together now?”

Renata closed her eyes before opening them and standing from the island. She wordlessly gathered the plates and cups and started running the sink to wash them. Renata turned against the counter and leaned back on it, grasping the edges of the counter and looked to the floor. “She’s not who I fell in love with.” She sighed.

“In what way?” Emma had a haunch but wanted to hear what Renata was thinking. “And just so you know, anything you say to me stays with me.” She reassured.

Renata looked up, trying to keep tears from falling. “I… I just don’t know her. I mean, we grew up together, and I was with her through some of the worst times, but she has had all this time to grow and change and get over that part of her life, and I was just there.” She ran a hand through her hair. “She used to have this… fire… in her. Even when she was beaten down and dealing with terrible shit, and she just doesn’t seem to have it anymore. And I don’t know if that’s my fault that I couldn’t protect her anymore or what.” She turned around and started scrubbing dishes.

In that moment Emma realized just how much she didn’t know about the woman. Renata carried herself so strongly and Emma was used to people not looking the age that they were, but she realized Renata was still very much the person who went through hell so many years ago. “This might seem like a strange question, but how old were you two when you were arrested?”

“I was 21, Gina was 23.”

Emma took a deep breath before heading over and putting her hands on Renata’s shoulders. “You are still really, really young. Regina might not look it physically but emotionally she is so, so much older than you. I’m guessing that’s a little bit of it, right?”

Renata shrugged “Yes and no. I don’t mind that she’s so much older than me but I just think we are better off as friends right now. She needs someone who has been here with her these past few years and really knows her. Well, this version of her at least.”

Emma nodded and pulled back before grimacing.

“Oh gods, I completely forgot.” She slid out from between Emma and the counter and sprinted up the stairs, leaving Emma bewildered. Just a few moments later she returned with a vial in hand. “Apply this to your wounds, it will help them heal much faster, especially in… more sensitive areas.” Renata informed her with a sheepish expression.

Emma was confused at how someone who handled herself so maturely the night before had turned into this young, seemingly naïve person in front of her. “Thank you, Ren” Renata grinned at the nickname. “How are you feeling, really?”

Her grin fell a bit “Its… It’s a lot to handle. I am doing the best I can. From what I have been told and seen life is so much different here. I don’t know how to balance who I was with this world.”

“Who were you?”

Renata scrunched her eyebrows “What do you mean?”

“I am assuming you had a job back in the enchanted forest, what did you do?”

“Oh… I guess I assumed you knew. I was a knight, and I worked my way to be head of the Queen’s personal guard. She was my greatest friend in our youth, and I didn’t feel safe leaving her in anyone else’s hands. Of course, as you know that turned into something else entirely” Renata chuckled “I fought for everything I had. This life of sitting around is not for me.”

Emma agreed “I definitely know how you feel. How about once I’m patched up we start working out together? It’s probably not as intense as knight training but it’s at least something.”

“I’d like that” Regina smiled. She was just about to add something else when the doorbell rang. “Ah… I’ll go check that, just in case.”

Emma nodded as Renata climbed the half set of stairs to the foyer and front door. Without looking through the peephole, she opened the door and stared.

“What the fuck?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh... Who do you guys think is at the door? 
> 
> I do apologize for the delay on this chapter. I am a full time college student and also have an internship and job, so things get a bit hectic around here.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad decisions incoming

_She was just about to add something else when the doorbell rang. “Ah… I’ll go check that, just in case.”_

_Emma nodded as Renata climbed the half set of stairs to the foyer and front door. Without looking through the peephole, she opened the door and stared._

“ _What the fuck?”_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma followed Renata up the stairs, not wanting to back down. She had been doing too much of that recently. She was startled by Renata’s exclamation and hurried up the last few stairs.

“Hmm… Just as eloquent as I remember.” Emma followed the voice straight into the eyes of the smirking Evil Queen.

“Ahhh, Regina hadn’t gotten to this part of memory lane, huh?” Emma asked, a bit entertained by the still speechless and gaping blonde.

The Queen tapped Renata on the cheek twice “You look like a fish, dear.”

Renata closed her mouth then sputtered “How? Wh.. what the- HOW?”

At that point Regina, fresh out of her shower, heard the commotion and came downstairs in just her silk rope, leaving the two blondes speechless once again, for very different reasons. Renata groaned, burying her face in her hands “What. The. Fuck. Is going on?”

Regina and the Evil Queen both chuckled, making Emma roll her eyes. “I’ll let you two explain this mess. I’m going to go shower and put… whatever this stuff is on” gesturing to the vial in her hand.

Regina hummed “Towels are in the cabinet, dear.”

Emma nodded and went on her way. Renata looked between the two Reginas. “I… I don’t really know what to say.” She concluded.

The Queen took pity on her and stepped closer, cupping her cheek. “I realize this is confusing, and I’d love to catch up, my dear, but I’m afraid I must talk to Regina first” she chuckled “The _other_ Regina.”

Renata nodded and looked to Regina “Um, I guess I’ll go grab a shower as well while you talk.”

Regina smiled softly, “you know where everything is” She said, to the Queen’s quirked eyebrow.

“Oh, she does? You’ve sure been busy” She drawled, smirking at Regina’s blush.

“Not like that.” Regina snapped.

“I’m actually going to home for a while” Renata interjected. _‘if for no other reason than to escape this mess for a moment’_ she thought.

“Oh” Regina frowned, “I guess I will see you later then.” She noticed that Renata made no move to kiss her cheek or hug her goodbye like she usually did, but to be fair, she did just inadvertently drop a bomb on her.

“I will definitely see you soon, darling,” the Queen winked before turning her attention to Regina.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several hours later found Renata in her room at the Inn. She had moved off of Red’s couch a few weeks back, feeling bad for crashing with the two women. In addition to that, she stayed at Regina’s rather late and hated sneaking back in at night attempting not to wake them. Her getting her own room was just better for everyone involved, though living with Red was a lot of fun and reminiscent of her childhood with her and Granny.

The Regina situation still wrecked her mind, but she knew she would have to wait for one of the two women to explain it. It was fascinating. Neither of the women standing in that foyer had been _her_ Regina, the Queen seemed much more hardened and much more… sensual than Regina had ever been around her. Contrasting that with the fragile and reserved Regina she had gotten to know the past few weeks made her head spin. She decided to take a nap, just hoping to make sense of it later.

Her nap was interrupted about an hour later by a firm knock on her door. She groaned, then rolled out of bed. She flung open the door once she reached it, not quite expecting the Queen on the other side.

“Have you truly lost all sense of decorum in mere months in this realm?” The Queen admonished.

Renata smirked “What can I say, it’s nice not having to worry about much over the last little while. Quite the contrast to the life I left”

“Fair enough” The Queen nodded.

“Come on in, your majesty.”

“Ren, you don’t have to do that. I remember our life just as well as the Regina here”

Renata shrugged “Listen. I don’t know what the hell is going on or did go on. I am just trying to live my life here.”

The Queen gave a sad smile “I know, and that is why I am here.”

Renata nodded “There’s not much room but let’s at least sit” She motioned for Regina to sit on the bed and she grabbed the desk chair and sat across from her.

“Well to start, I am Regina, not some long lost sister, clone, or otherwise. But we are not the same, which I am sure you gathered. The short story is that Regina was tired of fighting with certain parts of herself and made an inadvisable decision to cast out the parts she didn’t like. I am the result of that.”

Renata’s face scrunched “She split her soul?”

“Essentially, yes. Then she tried to kill me.”

Renata shook her head “That wouldn’t work. If she killed you then she’d kill herself.”

“Yes, well, obviously it didn’t work out for her.”

Renata inhaled deeply “That’s why she doesn’t seem herself.”

The Queen tilted her head “You noticed?”

Renata scoffed “Of course. My- The old Regina was so different. I thought it might have just been time but… Her missing part of herself makes more sense honestly.”

Regina nodded “She wanted to cast out the ‘Evil Queen’ but she forgot that what makes me is also what makes her.”

“So, what do we do about it?” Ren questioned

The Queen hummed “I am assuming you mean ‘how do we join back?’”

Renata nodded.

“I am unsure. Before I didn’t want to go back. Now that some things have happened and I am alone again, the natural thing to do was to come here. Especially once I gained memories of us. I didn’t know that it meant you were here, but I knew something happened.”

Renata hummed “I’ve been pushing her towards Emma.”

“I know. It does seem like a good match, doesn’t it?” The Queen concurred.

“Mmhmm. What about you though?” She asked, rising out of her chair to take a step towards the Queen.

The Queen didn’t answer for a minute, eyes drawing in every detail of the strong woman before her. “I think my interests lie elsewhere.” She grasped Renata’s shirt and pulled her down on top of her before kissing her fiercely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Shit” Renata groaned, waking up to the naked body entangled with her own. She didn’t _regret_ it, per say, but it definitely was not the best idea to sleep with your ex’s regal half that she cast out while pushing the other half to another woman. Let alone the fact that she just met this version of Regina mere hours before doing so, only having one real conversation with her. She stretched and sat up in the Queen’s embrace before looking down at her and stroking her long dark hair. Renata’s head fell back against the headboard as she thought through her situation. It was fucked up, to say the least. This woman certainly had the fire she was used to, that was a fact. She was so strong and sure of herself. She was exactly the part of Regina that Renata missed. Speaking of Regina, she was going to have to tell her. She was not looking forward to that conversation. Where would this even go from here? Could she have a relationship with half a person? ‘ _You had no trouble sleeping with half a person_ ’ her brain unhelpfully supplied.

“I can hear your thinking from here, stop it.” The Queen groaned.

‘ _Speaking of, I have to find different names to call the two of them. It feels weird to call her ‘the Queen’ but calling them both ‘Regina’ is just confusing’_

“Ugghh, stop” Regina repeated before snuggling closer to the blonde and holding her tight.

A knock on the door sounded, making the Queen groan once again “Why can’t I just sleep?”

Renata chuckled, some things never change. She peeled the woman from her and covered her up before pulling on a robe and going to answer the door.

“Have you seen the queen? She didn’t some back last night and I was…” Regina stopped, blinking at Renata’s attire before turning her gaze to the bed where there was another, unmistakable form.

Renata cringed, biting her lip and closing her eyes for whatever was about to come.

“I… I…” Regina looked up to Renata’s face, betrayed. “How… After everything? After all the reassurances that it just wasn’t our time? You… you fucked her?!”

This finally caught the attention of the Queen, who sat up on her elbows, letting the blanket fall and revealing the hickeys over her breasts.

Regina glanced over, attention caught by the movement. Her jaw dropped and she looked at the ceiling, blinking back tears.

“Gina” Renata sighed, reaching out to touch her shoulder. The woman jerked back away from the touch.

“I think you’ve done enough” She stuttered through tears before turning and attempting to walk away confidently, but her shaking shoulders gave her away.

Renata sighed. She knew she messed up. She knew from the moment she woke up. She turned, closing the door and leaning back against it.

“Ren?” She jumped, having forgotten the other brunette was even in the room. “Ren, why are you so upset?”

“Why am I so upset? WHY AM I SO UPSET? I hurt her. I hurt her so bad, and I swore a long time ago never to do that. I’m upset because she feels like shit right now. She feels like I chose you after getting to know her for months. And it’s the truth! I did choose you after almost no time at all. And we have been through a good bit over the last few months, the last couple nights especially. I don’t want to lose her as a friend. Not for anything.”

The Queen sighed, knowing the peace of the night was over for good and she was not going to convince Renata to come back to bed with her. “I’ll talk to her.” She said as she slowly rose and waved a hand over herself, dressing and doing her hair and makeup perfectly.

“I’m not sure that is the best idea right now.” Renata questioned.

“It’s the only idea right now” She said before twisting her hand and disappearing in a cloud of purple smoke.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all the wonderful comments and kudos on the last chapter! I appreciate it!  
> -Queenie

The door of the mansion slammed shut, alarming Emma from her spot relaxing in Regina’s bedroom. She found it strange how quickly she became comfortable in the space. She never thought she would be fine with just _existing_ in Regina’s space like this, but it was nice. She left the room to meet up with Regina wherever she was headed. As she walked down the stairs, the sound of sobs became apparent before disappearing before another slammed door. Emma took a deep breath. _Regina dealt with my mess, I can at least try to help whatever is going on_ she thought. She knew Regina left to find the Queen earlier, after she didn’t come back after agreeing to staying in the guest room. They had once again, platonically (ish) shared Regina’s bed last night. Emma did not want to sleep alone and Regina was not one to complain. She reached the closed study door and knocked twice. “R’gina?” No response. “Gina, I am coming in” she decided. She twisted the handle slowly and pushed in. The other woman had not locked it, though that probably wouldn’t have stopped Emma. She took one more breath and peeked in.

“Leave me alone, Miss Swan” Regina croaked from her position on the couch. She was curled up on the end, clutching a pillow.

“I don’t think I am gonna do that” Emma responded, ignoring the ‘Miss Swan’ for now. Clearly there were bigger issues and she did not know if joking about it was the best idea at the moment.

“Please” Regina barely whispered before breaking out in sobs once again.

Emma sighed “Please let me help. You don’t have to say anything, just let me try to repay what you’ve done for me these past few days.”

Regina looked up with red eyes and met Emma’s concerned ones. She held the stare for a minute before nodding ever so slightly.

Emma relaxed slightly and moved over to sit next to Regina on the couch. After a moment she opened her arms for Regina to fall into if she wanted to. She acquiesced and laid her head on Emma’s shoulder. After a few minutes she let go of her pillow in order to replace it with the warm body next to her.

The two women sat in silence for several minutes before Regina lifted her head to look Emma in the eyes. Concerned green met her own. After a moment’s hesitation, she moved forward to capture Emma’s lips. Emma stilled in surprise, before moaning slightly and returning the kiss. It was gentle at first, full of Regina’s pain and Emma’s worry, but over time, Regina pushed more and more, becoming desperate. As her hands went to Emma’s shirt, she began to unbutton the borrowed silk shirt of hers. Emma groaned, but snapped out of the kiss induced haze she had been in.

“Gina” she groaned “Stop”.

“Please” Regina murmured next to her ear.

“No R’gina” She hated herself for stopping the woman, but Regina was in no state to make rational decisions, let alone she herself was not ready to take this step. She had after all just left her husband two nights ago after a violent encounter. “Not now, not yet” She attempted to reassure the brunette that it wasn’t a _no_ , but just a _no for now_. She took the once again sobbing woman into her arms tighter than before. “Gina… Can you tell me what you are thinking about?”

Regina choked back her tears and looked toward the ceiling. “Why am I not enough?” she cried.

Emma rubbed her shoulder where she was clutching onto it “Of course you are enough, what are you talking about?”

“I- Ren didn’t want me and you didn’t want me and-and…”

“Whoa whoa whoa” Emma interrupted “That is so not true and you know it. I so want you, but this is not the time and I’m not ready yet for that”

Regina’s eyes opened wide, having forgotten about the ordeal that happened in her foyer just two nights ago “Oh gods, I am so sorry, so so sorry!” She sprung back from Emma “I never meant to jump you like that! I just” Regina’s voice broke.

“No, no, no, it’s okay! You are nothing like him. I like holding you and kissing you, but I just can’t do anything else yet, I am just not ready.” Emma assured, rising off the couch to reach the woman who was holding herself with her arms around her own stomach. “Come here, Gina. It’s okay, I promise.”

Regina nodded, falling into Emma’s open arms once again.

“Now what about Renata? You said she didn’t want you?” Emma questioned, thinking back to the earlier conversation.

Regina stiffened “I…Uh… She…” She stuttered.

“What happened, darling?”

Regina broke away from her thoughts, smiling lightly at the pet name. Emma had only used it once on her, and she was half asleep and doubted Emma even knew she said it. She took a deep breath. _Best to get it over with_. “Renata slept with the Queen last night.”

Emma nodded dumbly “okay?” she cocked her head.

Regina huffed “Not platonically, dear” and rolled her eyes.

Emma’s eyes shot open, finally getting what Regina was saying. “Oh!” She blinked rapidly. “Ohhh” she smirked. It quite honestly was not a bad picture.

Regina smacked Emma on the arm lightly and glared at her. “Don’t think about it” she hissed.

“Ow” Emma exclaimed, rubbing her arm “Okay, okay. So Renata fucked the Queen and you are upset about it. Why exactly? I guess I am not clear on the rules of evil doppelgangers.”

Regina was in awe of how nonchalant Emma was with this whole thing “Must you be so crass? That is ME we are talking about”

Emma cocked her head “Is it?” she asked. “I mean, I know you have the same memories to a point, and your appearance is the same save for cosmetic choices, but is that enough to call her ‘you’ or did you give up that right when you split her away from you?”

Regina sighed before sitting back down on the couch and burying her head in her hands “I don’t know. I just know that seeing them there like that felt like a betrayal.”

“A betrayal from which one?”

“I don’t know. Both?” Regina said, worrying her bottom lip.

Emma sighed “I know I can’t tell you how to feel, and I don’t want to make excuses for her, but I think tensions have been running high these past few days. Renata is young, and she’s human. Mistakes happen, but you won’t know how she feels about it unless you talk to her.

Regina nodded “It’s just that almost the entire time she has been back she has cut off any contact between us that would lead to something like… that. And then in a span of a couple of hours she’s in bed with the queen.”

Emma hummed. “It’s not my place to share some things the two of us have talked about, but I do think you should try and talk with her. Really talk with her. I’m not sure she is adjusting to life here very well. Keep in mind that you really aren’t the same woman she was beside all that time ago. For one, there are all those years, but also you did split yourself.”

“You think that the queen reminds her more of the one she knew?”

Emma held her hands up in surrender “I’m not gonna make assumptions. There is a lot going on here and none of us have the full picture of what she’s feeling being thrown into this.”

Regina nodded, pacified for the moment. Now she was just exhausted, there were far too many emotions for the morning. She was still upset, no doubt about it, but she was trying to see the other points of view. As wonderful a woman as she is, Renata has always been impulsive, and this is not the first time it has come back to bite her.

Regina bid farewell to Emma and went upstairs to take a much-needed nap. Emma went to watch TV in the family room. This recent drama did not make other things go away, and she had a bit of catching up to do as far as her sheriff duties went. David had agreed to take over for the last two days, but he still did not really know anything that was going on. She could only imagine he hadn’t breathed a word to Mary Margaret or else she would have been knocking down the door already. She was very thankful that was not the case. With all the insanity flying around at the moment, she could not deal with her mother’s dramatics as well. She decided to call David, having made the decision to press charges despite the publicity it would attract to the situation. Regina had comforted her last night over making a decision. She knew that if she didn’t push for him to be locked up and just proceeded with the divorce (that he would ignore) he would still be a danger to other women. He answered after the second ring, and she spent the next 20 minutes going through the procedure needed with her father, as uncomfortable as it was, and made him promise not to tell Snow a thing was wrong until Hook was locked up for good and Emma was recovered. David was clearly fuming over what the man had done to his daughter, but she trusted him to keep a level head for the most part and do what needed to be done.

About 30 minutes later, she was lounged on the couch watching a crime show when a cloud of purple smoke appeared before her, leaving behind the Queen, dressed in all her corseted glory.

“What’s up your Queenliness?” Emma greeted casually.

The woman narrowed her eyes at the blonde, not amused by her greeting in the least. “Where is Regina?”

“Napping, and you are not going to bother her” Emma responded easily.

The queen huffed and moved Emma magically to one side of the couch before gracefully sitting down on the other side.

“Hey! Not cool!” Emma whined, mourning the loss of her position sprawling the whole piece of furniture.

The queen just rolled her eyes. “Did she say anything?”

“A little. Enough for me to know.” Emma responded, eyes still glued to the screen.

“And you are not trying to murder me?” the queen quirked a brow in surprise. She thought the hero complex would surely come into play here.

“We talked about it. She’s not okay with it but I think I convinced her to talk to Ren about it instead of assuming the worst.”

The brunette woman hummed “We do have the tendency to do that I’m afraid.”

Emma finally turned to look at her. She sighed and slid a hand onto the woman’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay, you’ve just got some things to figure out, especially with you guys discussing ways to join back.”

“So she told you about our little talk yesterday.”

“Not everything I’m sure. I still don’t know how you got back and why you are back alone, but enough to know you weren’t trying to seize control of the town.” Emma smirked. “So, how long are you staying?”

The queen sighed “Indefinitely. I have no desire to go back to that poorly dubbed ‘wish realm’”.

“Okay then. You need a name. I am not calling you ‘the queen’ forever and two Regina’s just gets confusing.”

The queen nodded.

“Hmm…”Emma thought out loud, “How about Reign? It’s regal, still starts with an ‘R’, and kinda suits you.”

The queen looked up in thought, trying out the name in her head. “It’s not bad. How about we try it out then decide for sure?”

“Okay, Reign.” Emma smirked. The two sat in mostly silence, both watching the TV and waiting for Regina to eventually make her way down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two women were eventually joined by another, though not the one they expected first. Emma went to the door to let her in, not knowing it was Renata on the other side. They were not planning to reveal that Reign was in town, not until there was a plan for dealing with the fallout. The townspeople were not expected to take her reappearance well.

Emma sighed when she opened the door. Renata looked beyond worn down, eyes red-rimmed and shoulders slouched, far from her usual military stance. She looked ready to be yelled at, anticipating another punch. Emma knew that would do no good. She has plenty of experience with making choices she regrets for one reason or another. So instead of berating the younger woman, she wrapped her arms around her and pulled her in the door to the foyer. Renata stiffened at first, not expecting the move at all, but then started to cry.

“Shh, it’s okay, it will all be okay.” She cried harder. “Yea I know, that line never works on me either.” Renata started laughing through her tears. Sometimes a little joke was all that was needed to lighten up feelings.

“Is she here?”

“The queen?”

“Yea.”

“She is. We are trying out the new name of ‘Reign’ for the time being to see how it fits” Emma responded.

“Hmm, that works. Regina?”

“Upstairs taking a nap. She hasn’t seen Reign yet either.”

“I guess I should figure out a plan” Renata said sadly “I don’t want to lose either of them”

Emma smiled “You won’t. It is a complicated situation. Not everyone you sleep with has another version of themselves with the same past strolling around.”

“Yea” Renata frowned “Remember what we were talking about yesterday morning?”

“Of course,” Emma confirmed, “Would I be correct in concluding that Reign has what you were missing”

“I guess so. I just… It was so… It felt so right to be with her again, right up until I realized I had just literally fucked my way out of a friendship with Regina.”

Emma chuckled, “Don’t count yourself out just yet. Did you singlehandedly destroy Regina’s self-confidence by sleeping with her other half?” Renata winced “Yes. But can you help fix it? Also yes”

“She just has such a spark with you that I don’t see with myself and her. We are easy. We get along great and I will always love her too. But Reign and I… We have the fire that Regina and I once had. Is it exactly the same? No, but it feels right. Well, it does except for the guilt.”

“I get it, I do. That the same way I am with Reign. I adore her, but we are more like siblings harassing each other than anything else. Regina is where all the passion lies for me.” Emma said.

Renata nodded and smiled “This could really all work out couldn’t it?”

“I’d like to think so” Emma confirmed. “Let’s go the family room and join Reign while we wait for Regina” She led Renata away, not realizing the other woman was listening from the top of the stairs for most of the conversation.


	10. Chapter 10

Regina took a deep breath to ready herself, still processing everything she overheard. She didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but when she got to the stairs the two women were already talking and she didn’t want to interrupt. ‘ _Regina is where all the passion lies for me’_ she smiled to herself, thinking about Emma’s words. _Okay, I can do this. I can listen and be reasonable and not let my insecurities get the best of me. Renata still loves me, but Emma wants to be with me,_ she thought. She mused to herself, _at least it will be easier than them fighting over me_ , she chuckled at the imaginary image of the two women at each other’s throats. _That belongs on a soap opera, not in real life. Of course, ‘My ex-mistress is sleeping with my evil other half while I am seducing my adoptive son’s birth mother’ could also definitely be on the soap list._ She knew that her other half, or ‘Reign’ as they were apparently calling her, was not evil. She had actually talked to the woman multiple times since sending her to the wish realm. Of course, no one else knew that. That was between her and… herself. They talked through their linked mirrors every few weeks, keeping the other updated on the happenings in each realm. That was why Regina did not expect her appearance. At their last check-in everything had been fine, but evidently it was not all as it seemed, as Reign told her once they sat down to talk.

_Okay, now I am just procrastinating_ , she thought. She took the first step down the stairs. She had put on her armor to deal with this, a sleek black pantsuit with a red silk blouse and matching red pumps. She took another. And another. Before she knew it she was at the foyer landing. Quite honestly, she was embarrassed by her earlier display of emotion, it was something that never would have happened if she were whole with her other half. That was also a discussion she needed to have with Reign again. They had agreed to start looking for a way to rejoin, but this development could very well change that plan.

She looked up as she reached the family room at the scene laid before her. Emma and Reign were on the couch, and Renata, poor Renata, was sitting in the armchair across from there practically shaking. She cleared her throat and all three sets of eyes flew to her. Her confidence almost crumbled again, but she looked at Emma’s reassuring smile, took another deep breath, and walked to Renata, who was still staring at her with big eyes. She reached down for Renata’s hand and tugged her up off the chair. Renata complied, and was awestruck when Regina then wrapped her arms around her.

“I’m sorry, Ren. I overreacted. You know I do not apologize often, but to you I am sorry. I’m sorry I made you so upset that you were shaking at the prospect of seeing me.” She took in a shaky breath and tucked her head under Renata’s chin. _Damn I forgot how tall she is_. Renata started laughing. “I said that out loud didn’t I?” Renata just nodded and kept giggling. “Can we talk for a minute alone? I know all four of us need to talk together, but just for a minute?”

“Of course, Gina” Ren responded before giving her one last squeeze and releasing her.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Reign called out as they walked away towards Regina’s office.

“That does not narrow the options much!” Regina quipped back before closing the door.

They heard her cackling through the closed door and Regina rolled her eyes while they sat on the couch.

“Listen Gina-“ Regina started to interrupt but Ren held up her hand and continued “I need to say this, please.” Regina nodded for her to continue. “I know you apologized, and I accept that, because you were out of line in what you said, but I was too. I knew from the moment I woke up that it was going to hurt you, and I am so sorry for that. I never, ever wanted to hurt you or make you feel like you weren’t good enough or wanted by me. I shouldn’t have slept with her right after meeting her, I know that, but it… it felt like old times with her. I don’t quite understand how all this split-soul shit works, but I know this. I love you. And after meeting her, it felt just like the two of us rolling around in your chambers so many” Renata gulped “years… ago. But that’s the thing. All this time... it just hasn't been the same for me. I don’t really know how to handle that, but I know that with her it just faded away, like we had never been apart.” Regina started tearing up. “I don’t know why I feel that way with her and not you, but maybe it is the universe telling us something. I see you with Emma, I know how she talks about you. There’s something there, and I highly doubt you would get the chance to explore it if you were with me… I don’t think either of us are the sharing type.” Regina chuckled, nodding in agreement. “I guess what I am trying to say, and horrifically stumbling around, is that I love you so, so much, and I love the other part of you too. I absolutely want to be around, I want to be your closest friend, like we were all that time ago. Go to Emma and let me go to Reign.”

Regina started tearing up again before sliding over and folding into Renata. “You are too sweet, too good. Even when you sleep with my other half I can’t even be mad at you for long at all because I know you would never mean to hurt me.” Renata stroked her back. “Do you know how infuriating that is?” Renata started laughing, then Regina pulled back and gave her a light smack on the shoulder.

“Ow!” She laughed, dramatically rubbing her shoulder before pouting.

“Oh, stop that, I raised a child. That doesn’t work on me anymore.” Regina said, but still looked away because that _definitely_ still worked on her.

Renata laughed again “Uh huh, I’m sure. So, anything else you want to say to me?”

Regina thought for a minute before smiling lightly “Take care of her. She’s been through a lot, even more than the last time you knew her.”

Renata smiled back before pulling her in for one last hug. Regina missed this, the physicality of their friendship. They had always been like this, even as little girls, much to Cora’s disgust. She had lived so many years without a good hug, and it was nice to have it back. “Okay, let’s go talk with our other halves.” Regina said, sadly interrupting their moment.

Renata snorted “Pretty sure they are both your other half.”

Regina groaned at the bad joke and smacked Renata on the shoulder again.

“Owwwww” She whimpered dramatically before finally standing up and following Regina out to the family room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well I take it from the smiles all is well?” Reign questioned as the two entered the room.

Renata smiled “We have come to an understanding” She surprised the woman by coming to sit next to her on the couch instead of reinstating her self-banishment across the room. She also gave her a quick peck on the cheek, leaving the normally confident woman blushing.

Regina saw this and smiled to herself before fake pouting, looking at the full couch without a spot for her “This just won’t do.” She strut over to the couch and grabbed Emma’s hand before dragging her over to the couch previously occupied by Renata.

Emma sputtered “Oh-Okay then”. Regina grinned, then mirrored Renata by placing a soft kiss on Emma’s cheek, which Emma closed her eyes and smiled into. “Well you two must really have come to an understanding”

Regina smiled, placing her hand lightly on Emma’s thigh before turning more to face the other two women “She is free to be with Reign, no hard feelings.”

Emma smiled and leaned in to her “I’m proud of you” she whispered into Regina’s ear. Regina blushed and gave Emma’s thigh a squeeze where she had her hand resting. Those few words had way too strong an effect on her.

Reign cleared her throat to get the other women’s attention. “I believe this does leave us with a decision to make, Regina.” Regina turned and nodded.

“Would I be correct in assuming you would like to remain separated from me?” Regina asked, merely for formality’s sake.

“Of course, but we could still look for a way to join back, just to have on hand. We never know what might happen in this town.” Reign proposed.

Regina wrinkled her nose “I guess you are correct in that statement. We should be prepared for anything.”

Renata looked between them, a bit lost, but she figured Reign would explain it to her later.

“We are agreed then” Reign stated. “Now I believe each of us have some discussions better suited for privacy. I will talk to you soon, Regina.”

Regina nodded “Goodbye Reign.” And with that, Reign and Renata were taken off in a cloud of purple smoke.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. I'm sure you all are in the same boat with the Coronavirus mess going around. My life, like so many others, has been turned upside down. Essentially I got kicked out of my apartment on my university campus and had to move back in with my parents. Which wouldn't be too bad except I'm gay and they are homophobic. Good times. Hope you guys are all doing okay out there. 
> 
> Anyway, as far as the chapter goes, I kept playing around with different ideas and just could not decide where I wanted to take this story. At one point the whole thing was planned out but I ended up writing something different. It happens. I am not going to be rehashing season 7 in this fic but there will be some similar themes to move it along.

Regina curled into Emma’s side, sighing. Emma smiled against her before wrapping her arms around the woman and falling to her side on the couch, pulling the woman on top of her. Regina snuggled into her, head resting on the blonde’s shoulder.

“I’m exhausted” Regina admitted.

Emma hummed “I know Gina. It’s been a long day, and it’s barely noon.”

Regina groaned “How do you feel today darling?”

Emma inhaled sharply. “Physically? A lot better. Whatever Renata ordered did the trick.”

“And emotionally?” Regina questioned, pulling away to look in her eyes.

Emma sighed “I don’t know honestly. I…” She started to tear up. Regina got up and straddled Emma’s hips to pull her up into a hug. She held the woman’s head and stroked her hair as Emma finally broke down.

“I know” Regina mourned “I know all too well, dear.” Emma finally brought her arms around the woman and held on tight. They sat like that, swaying lightly in each other’s arms until Emma brought herself together.

“I need to get back to normal, but my ‘normal’ is going to be nothing like what it once was.” Regina pulled back and tucked a lock of blonde hair behind the woman’s ear.

“I know it’s not going to be easy, dear.” Regina said sincerely “But it _will_ be worth it” The brunette reached for pale hands, holding each one gently. “Tell me what I can do to help, Emma.”

Emma gulped “I uhh put in paperwork with David to have Hook locked up permanently” Regina nodded “But…” She trailed off.

“Darling, what do you _want_ ” Regina insisted.

“I want him gone.” Emma rushed out. She almost looked stunned herself for a moment. “I want him gone” she whispered again.

Regina nodded. “Reign and I will take care of that first thing tomorrow.”

Emma looked up at the ceiling, tears filling her eyes once again “I hate feeling this way” She whispered.

Regina just held her hands tighter, wishing she could take this pain away. At the end of the day though, no one could take on Emma’s demons but her herself.

“Darling, would you take a nap with me?” The older woman lightly asked after a minute.

Emma nodded, and they slowly unfolded themselves, making their way up to the bedroom that had quickly become _theirs_. Regina slid into the closet to change her own clothes into something more comfortable, leaving Emma in the bedroom to do the same. Only she couldn’t. She took off her shirt, and she took off her pants, but after that she caught a glimpse of herself in Regina’s full-length mirror and couldn’t do anymore. She took a step towards it. Towards her reflection in that mirror. Pale skin, dingy hair. Her plain grey boy shorts and cotton bra almost hanging off her. Just because she didn’t feel the pain of her injuries did not mean they weren’t visible. The salve was incredible pain relief, but it had been created with the intent to sneak under the King’s nose, so he didn’t know Regina was being treated. As she looked upon her injuries, she felt Killian’s hands on her, saw his face looking back at her. A hook print here, a handprint-shaped bruise there. She closed her eyes, wishing the memories to stop, but they only grew more vivid. She heard his voice in her ear, yelling at her. She felt his hand grip around her neck, and she wanted to scream, she wanted to collapse, she wanted to cry. She never noticed Regina slip back into the room, observing her with tears in her eyes. The woman knew better than to touch Emma right now, but she moved soundlessly until she was across from her, leaning against a dresser next to the mirror.

“Do you know what I see?” Emma gasped, completely oblivious to the woman’s entrance. “I see a strong woman, who fought valiantly, who made it out in time. I see a woman who loves fiercely all those around her, even those who don’t deserve it. I see a woman who cares just so damn much she would do anything to save those around her, no matter the cost.” Regina stepped up to her now, having her attention, and put her hand on Emma’s shoulder to look her in the eyes. “I see the woman who carried my child” She added as she gently brushed the woman’s bare stomach with her other hand. “I see the woman who took a chainsaw to my apple tree because I pissed her off” They both giggled lightly “I see the woman who has saved me more times than I can count, who took the _curse of the dark one_ to keep me safe.” She spun around and held Emma around the middle and looked her dead in the eyes from where her head was resting on Emma’s shoulder, barely reaching. “I see the woman I love.”

Emma sucked in a breath and turned over her shoulder to meet the woman, petite now without her heels. “Really?” She asked, and Regina could see the light in her eyes that was gone moments ago.

Regina’s face broke into a toothy smile that Emma thought was absolutely adorable on her, and responded “Yes my darling, I love you. So much.”

Emma didn’t respond, she just leaned down to kiss the woman, her moment of panic forgotten.

Regina stroked up Emma’s jaw lovingly, “Now, let’s get some clothes on you and take that nap.” She suggested.

Emma nodded and searched for a nearby drawer where she pulled out a pair of black leggings and an oversized t-shirt. These were not part of Regina’s clothing collection, but the woman had made sure plenty of comfy clothes were lying around for the blonde since she had unofficially moved in.

Emma finally took in the woman before her after she pulled her pajamas on. The older woman reached a hand out to her to lead her to the bed. The woman was wearing a short purple nightgown, that while fairly modest, might as well have been lacy lingerie as far as Emma was concerned. She knew now was not the time for that, however, and let herself be led to the bed. The women climbed in and Regina held Emma close as they both drifted off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over at the bed and breakfast, the other couple were deep in sleep, also exhausted by the drama of the morning and having the exact same plan to deal with it. Unlike the other couple though, Reign was the little spoon in this pairing, perfectly content to have her lover hold her close. After about an hour though, Reign had reached her napping limit and stretched awake in Renata’s arms.

Renata groaned “No” and tightened her hold on the woman.

Reign giggled, an action that would probably take anyone else aback, and placed her left hand over the younger woman’s resting on her ribcage right below her breasts. “Dear, let me go” she demanded playfully.

The blonde’s nose wrinkled in stubbornness “Nope, you’re stuck here. With me.” She mumbled and buried her face in Reign’s hair, landing next to her neck. She turned slightly and kissed the spot.

Reign groaned. “Dear, don’t start something you can’t finish.”

Renata finally made a move, turning Reign on her back and straddling her “Who said I couldn’t finish?” She questioned with a quirked eyebrow and a grin.

Reign bolted up to kiss her harshly, Renata responding with just as much enthusiasm. They stayed like that for a few minutes, enjoying each other. Renata made the next move, kissing down the Queen’s jawline to her neck, where she licked and sucked gently.

“Sis?” The two women heard called out from the other side of the door, along with knocking.

Reign groaned. “That pup is going to meet the business end of a fireball one of these days.”

The blonde chuckled and pressed one more kiss to Reign’s lips. “No she won’t” She retorted, before crawling off of the woman and padding to the door. She flung the door open to reveal Red. “What’s up? My woman wasn’t too pleased to be interrupted.”

“Your woman, huh?” Reign teased, coming up behind her after pulling a robe over herself. She had not exactly been wearing much during their nap. The woman wrapped her arms around the blonde’s waist and peeked around the side of her arm, being much too short to rest her head on the tall blonde’s shoulder.

Renata looked down at her to throw her a smile along with a wink.

“Okay, okay, lovebirds. Emma and Regina just called saying you weren’t picking up. Something is up with Henry and they need you to head to the mansion.”

“What? Did they say anything else?” Reign was immediately focused.

“No, I’m sorry. I hope everything is okay.” Red responded.

“We will find out, darling. Take us there?” Renata asked, patting her hand where it had latched on hard to her side unconsciously.

Reign nodded before removing herself from her lover and throwing her hands up, engulfing the couple in purple smoke.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Violence. Nothing too graphic and all directed towards Hook. If it bothers you, skip scene 3.

When the couple appeared in the mansion, Reign had dressed them as well. She herself was in a long red velvet gown with a deep V-neck, and Renata in a fusion of her enchanted forest garb and the modern clothes from the land without magic. She had on tight black skinny jeans but a loose flowing long sleeve off-white blouse that laced up the front.

“Finally!” Regina huffed. “We have been trying to get a hold of you for almost half an hour!”

“Sorry Gina, we had just gotten asleep” Renata sighed. “So what is up?”

Regina turned from where she was grasping a table so hard her knuckles had gone white. “I just talked to Henry in the mirror. He needs our help… Well technically he requested myself, Emma, and Hook but clearly that is not going to happen. I assumed Reign would want to come too.” Regina quickly explained.

Renata nodded “Okay, when do we leave?”

The group turned to her.

“What?” she asked, confused by the stares of the three women before her.

Regina blinked “I uhh… Didn’t think you would want to come”

“Well why not? Do you not want me? I can stay if that is what you want, but… I would prefer go with you all.” Renata responded, fading off towards the end.

Reign gathered her in a hug “It’s not that we don’t want you there, but you have no obligation to go, so Regina did not expect you to want to.” She looked to Regina who nodded in confirmation.

“I will always do my best to protect you. Both of you. And as far as I am concerned, your son is very much a part of you, so I will protect him too. And if you are thinking you are going into potential danger without me you are dead wrong.” Renata explained.

Emma smiled at her. “We leave in an hour. Get what you need.”

Renata nodded. “Take us back?” She looked to Reign who threw her hands up, shrouding them in purple magic as she took them back to the bed and breakfast.

Regina looked to Emma “I… I forgot something, I’ll see you in a minute?”

Emma cocked her head, sensing a bit of deception. “Of course, Regina.”

The woman leaned in and pecked Emma on the cheek before purple smoke engulfed her as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Reign, there’s something we need to take care of first before we leave.” Regina says as soon as the smoke disappears, leaving her in the bed and breakfast room with Renata and Reign.

The two women look to her and note her dead serious expression, lips in a tight line. “Okay, I’ll get everything ready here, Reign.” Renata walks around the bed to where the other woman is standing and gently grasps her chin, tilting it up to her. She leans into her ear “Don’t let her do anything she regrets” She whispers, before pulling back and kissing her gently.

Reign nods and puts the clothes she was holding down on the bed before turning to Regina and strutting towards her. She grasps Regina’s hand and they disappear once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The duo reappeared at the sheriff’s station before the man that neither ever wanted to see.

“Ahh, the Evil Queen… and the Evil Queen.” Hook snarked “And to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Regina chuckled darkly “Oh I think you know.”

“But you might not yet know just what we are going to do.” Reign added in a low timbre.

Regina flicked her wrist and froze the poor excuse for a man in his current position, leaned up against the bars of his cell, where he would likely have spent a lot more time without regal intervention. She then twisted her hand over lock, releasing the door. She opened the door calmly, a little too calmly. The Queen when enraged was a sight, but silently fuming was another animal altogether, especially when there is two. They were dark, cunning, and dangerous.

Killian’s eyes flicked between them as Regina pulled his frozen body away from the bars and into the center of the cell. Reign then strut into the cell with her counterpart and circled the man, inspecting. “I do believe he looks all too healthy, what do you think dear?” Reign posed the question to Regina.

“Hmm… I must agree” Regina all but growled before unfreezing him and simultaneously delivering a swift kick to the back of his knees, forcing him to the ground. Reign magicked on a pair of cuffs to his ankles, knowing handcuffs would not do much good without a second hand. He definitely wouldn’t get too far without falling over himself in those.

Reign then put him in a magical chokehold “How does it feel, huh? To be restrained, forced into a position you do not want?” She sneered at him, leaning in to see his face turn red. He growled something unintelligible, baring his teeth at her. She held her grip for a few seconds more, until he was just about to pass out. Then she gave up her grip with a snap that forced his neck sideways sharply. Not enough to kill him, but definitely leave him hurting for days.

Regina stalked to the front of him before swiftly reaching into his chest and pulling out his heart. Reign’s eyes widened for a moment before she schooled her features. _Don’t let her do anything she regrets._ Those were Renata’s words to her, and now was the critical moment. Would she regret killing Killian? Maybe not, but she would regret the stain of darkness on her heart, the stain that would mar the beginnings of her relationship with Emma. It could not be built upon blood. Regina thought fast and summoned a bottle. Both the other people in the room shot her a confused glance. “It’ll make sense in a moment” She rolled her eyes and promised, before swirling her hand around the bottle. When the smoke rolled away, they could see the Jolly Roger in the bottle, just as it had been years before. Regina thought it over and gave a nod of approval. She punched his heart back into his chest and Reign prepared to send him to his eternal isolation on the Jolly Roger, the supposed symbol of his love for Emma.

“Wait!” Regina blurted, causing Reign to halt her incantation. “One more consequence.” She waved her hand and raised Hook to a standing position. “Even if one day, someone is stupid enough to let you out, you will never do what you attempted to do to Emma to another woman ever again.” She promised darkly, before reaching out with her magic and ensuring just that. Hook screamed. Oh man did he scream, but Regina didn’t care. As far as she was concerned, justice was served. Reign knew exactly what she had done and nodded before continuing her spell, wrapping Hook, who was still screaming obscenities, in familiar purple wisps which took him from his regular size in the room to the deck of the ship in Reign’s hands.

She looked up into the drained brown eyes of her counterpart. “What now?” She asked.

Regina watched it for a minute, then waved her hand over it, teleporting it. She looked up into Reign’s questioning gaze. “Vault” she simply responded.

Reign nodded once again, then held out her arm. “Shall we?” Regina grasped said arm and the women transported back to the mansion to wait for the others.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reign paced alone back and forth in the mansion, waiting for the other women. As far as she was concerned, Hook got what was coming to him. However, she was concerned about Renata’s warning. Had she let Regina do too much? She knew Renata did not care if the pirate lived or died, she probably actually preferred the latter, but she was serious about Reign and Regina being two completely different people. Regina no longer had the taste for darkness and was so much more prone to guilt that would eat her up inside. Reign had no such reservations about justice and, well, revenge. She had the fire that used to keep the Evil Queen alive.

She jumped, feeling arms wrap around her waist. “I heard the abridged version of events. Thank you.” Renata murmured down into her ear. She took a breath, relieved that the woman did not think it went too far.

“Is Emma ready too?” She questioned, leaning back into the embrace.

“I believe so” Renata confirmed. “I admit to being unnerved at the idea of meeting your son who will look almost my age.”

Reign chuckled “I hadn’t thought about that. He might be confused for a bit, but trust me, the difference in life experience more than makes up for the years.”

Renata frowned “Yeah, I guess so.” She replied blandly.

Reign turned in her arms at the change in tone. “There’s something else. What is bothering you?”

Renata looked deeply into her eyes. “It’s nothing you need to worry about” she said before quickly pecking her on the lips and pulling away.

Reign huffed. _I’ll be the judge of that_ , she thought. But before she could try to drag it out of her, Renata spoke again.

“ _Please_ , not now darling.” She clearly sensed Reign’s oncoming argument. Reign bit her cheek, then opened her mouth to say something.

“Are we ready to go?” They were broken out of their moment by Emma’s perky voice. It was truly amazing how resilient the woman was, seeming more and more like her no nonsense, chain sawing self by the day. “Whoa, you guys okay?”

Renata nodded “We’re okay, Emma.”

“Yes, _Savior_ , we are just fine” Reign snapped at the same time. Both blondes turned their attention to her instantly. Emma held up her hands in a placating gesture. It had been a while since she’d heard that tone of voice directed at her, and she really had no desire to hear it again.

Renata sighed and rolled her eyes. She reached out to put her hands on Reign’s shoulders. “If it bothers you that much I will tell you later, but at the moment there are more important things to worry about that a past I cannot change!” She shook her head and removed her hands, turning and walking toward Emma. “Stop pouting, and let’s get a move on” she added over her shoulder.

Reign’s mouth dropped wide open and Emma’s eyes bulged at that, neither used to the easygoing blonde cracking like that. Emma turned and followed the woman, clearly to make an attempt to calm her. Reign stood there for a minute, realizing she shouldn’t have pushed the woman into talking about something she didn’t want to. After all, she had many memories she would prefer to never speak of again.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brought to you by Covid-19 and maybe a smidge of alcohol. 
> 
> Serious-ish note at the end, but do not read it if you are not okay with potential spoilers.

Eventually, the group did get themselves together and using a magic bean Regina had hid just in case, were on their way to Henry. Before he had ever left Storybrooke, Regina worked tirelessly to perfect mirror communication across realms. It was not a new concept, after all, the mirror realm was a place of its own, and she had pushed Cora through a mirror connected to Wonderland, but there were some catches. Whenever Henry wanted to talk to her from a new realm, he had to be the one to call, as otherwise the mirrors did not know what to connect to.

When he first left, Henry had called back at least every week, but he hadn’t called in the last two months, a fact that had left Regina stressed over the last few weeks, not that she had told anyone. In fact, she hadn’t even told Emma that she had talked to Henry at all since he had left until she received the call this afternoon. Emma had been less than thrilled, but they had put aside that conflict for another day. Regina did feel terrible though. Most concerning, though, about the call earlier today was the fact it was not Henry who called, but a little girl. She had also not shared that part with anyone else in the party. As far as they knew she had spoken to Henry directly. She didn’t quite know what to do with the information herself.

Right now, the group was following along behind the old red scarf of Henry’s, that Regina had enchanted with a locator spell. It was not exhilarating, but the group was already would up between worry of what they would run in to, and the conflicts within the group. They did not need any more at the moment.

The first night in the new realm, Regina and Reign worked together to summon up a camp, with two tents for the couples and a small campfire between them. Renata took her cue to find some food for the group, with Emma tagging along for lack of anything else to do. She felt a little out of place here, as she tended to do whenever she ended up trekking the wilderness of an unfamiliar realm.

“Where do you think we are?” Emma questioned quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, are we in the Enchanted Forest? You guys haven’t seemed to recognize anything, but you also haven’t not seemed to recognize anything.” Emma rambled.

Renata turned to her and quirked an eyebrow in a very Regina-like way. You could certainly find traces of the fact they grew up together if you looked hard enough. She chuckled “We have not recognized anything, Emma.” She conceded, “but all we have seen is forest. You do realize that most forests look the same, right?”

“I guess, but do you think we are?”

“In the Enchanted Forest?” Emma nodded. “No. I don’t. At least not in the Enchanted Forest as we knew it.”

“As you knew it? What does that mean?”

“It feels different here. More similar than Storybrooke, but not the same.” Renata responded.

“What feels different?” Emma questioned.

Renata sighed. “We are never going to catch anything if you don’t stop talking.” Emma looked down at her feet, kicking a pebble along as they walked.

“Regina was right, you really are a child.” Emma mock-glared at her. “Okay, okay.” Renata reached out for Emma’s hand and lightly tugged her down to the ground.

“This involves dirt?”

Renata rolled her eyes and groaned, “Just sit.” Once Emma finally did, Renata moved to be sitting directly in front of her. “Okay, now put your hands on the ground and feel it”

Emma proceeded to scoop up a handful of dirt. “Like this?”

Renata looked at her with disbelief. “No. Not like that. _Place_ your hands on the ground, close your eyes and _feel_. With your magic.”

Emma stopped messing with her and followed instructions for once in her life. She focused on reaching out, imagining her magic like tendrils travelling into the earth around her.

“ _Now_ do you feel it?” Renata asked.

Emma nodded and opened her eyes. “It’s like… A hum?”

“Exactly.” Renata confirmed. “That’s the signature of the magic running through here. Nature’s magic.”

Emma closed her eyes, feeling it. It was almost intoxicating in a way, a connection that she had never felt before.

“But wait, if I had to reach out with magic to feel it, how did you know about it?” Emma inquired.

Renata’s pleased expression dropped. “We should get hunting if we want real food tonight.” She got up suddenly and stalked off, Emma scrambling to follow after her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Renata and Emma did eventually find some game, in the form of two rabbits, before nightfall. They had hauled them back to camp and Renata skinned and gutted them, teasing the other women along the way. Emma had never gotten accustomed to preparing her own food, even in all her expeditions to the Enchanted Forest over the years. Granted, during one of them she was a princess who spent her days singing to flowers.

After nightfall, the two couples split up to go to their respective tents, but not everyone was able to rest. Regina climbed out of the tent and restarted the campfire shortly after Emma had fallen asleep. She knew the woman needed her in order to fall asleep at all and would keep an ear out for nightmares. Emma had made great progress over the last few days, but it had only been a few days. It felt like everything had changed though, and thus it seemed like weeks or even months had passed. This was typical for life in Storybrooke though, plenty of time would pass where it seemed like life would be normal, and then everything would happen at once. This was just the way it was. Regina conjured up a cup of tea. She could have conjured dinner as well, but magically produced food tended to be a bit tasteless, such as this tea. It tasted like someone just took leaves from the yard and crushed them in some water. It was the best she could get though. She sat on the fallen log they had pulled over, staring at the fire for quite a while before rustling came from the other tent. Regina looked over as a blonde head of hair emerged from the canvas walls of the tent.

Renata looked up and gave a tired grin. “Couldn’t sleep either?”

Regina just shook her head in the negative and turned her attention back to the flames before her. Even after all the pain she’d caused through them, watching the flames dance around each other was still bewitching and calming to her. Renata joined her on the log, sitting right next to her as the piece of wood was not that long. Before long, Regina rested her head on Renata’s shoulder, prompting the woman to wrap an arm around her from the side.

“We will find him. I promise.” Renata whispered.

A tear fell down Regina’s face, “I know.” After a moment she added “I do not know what comes next though.”

Renata hummed “How so?”

Regina was quiet for a moment. “I do not know if I can let him go again.”

It was Renata’s turn to be silent and think. “Then don’t.” She simply stated.

Regina shook her head. “I cannot do that. I have people who need me. I doubt all three of you would want to tag along too, and I don’t want to be without a single one of you. And that’s if Henry would want me to stay at all. ‘finding your own adventure’ typically does not involve dragging one’s mother along.”

“Hmm… Well. It sounds like it might be on Henry then. I will follow you. You know Emma will follow you to the ends of the Earth, and I don’t think Reign is too fond of hiding her existence in Storybrooke anyway.” Renata contested.

“I…I hadn’t even realized she was having to hide out.”

“Well,” Renata started “She had only been there for a short while, it hadn’t had enough time to grate on her yet, but it would. Either hiding or dealing with screaming townspeople.”

Regina chuckled “You are right on that one.” She conceded. “I guess we shall see what is going on right now with Henry and go from there. Now, do you wish to talk about what you’re hiding?”

Renata groaned “Not you too.”

“Oh yes, me too” Regina smirked.

Renata stared into the fire, dazing herself. Regina moved to rub circled onto her back. Renata took a deep breath in. “I…the most I can say right now is that everything is not how it seems. The _past_ is not what it seems.”

“ _Your_ past?”

Renata cringed “Partially, yes.”

Regina sighed. “That’s really all I am going to get?”

Renata gave her a sad smile. “For now, yes. Goodnight, Gina.” She turned and pressed a soft kiss to the top of Regina’s head before getting up and retreating back to her tent to make another attempt at sleeping.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the morning, the group packed up quickly to continue their trek. Following the floating red scarf was getting quite tedious, but they kept on. They passed through miles of forest over the last day and a half, before eventually coming across a small town. To Emma, it seemed normal enough. At least as normal as she could perceive a middle-ages town. They were not in Storybrooke anymore, that was for sure. The other women in the group were getting quite excited as they reached the town. Emma was happy for some real food, that she didn’t have to catch. Magic food and rabbit got old really fast. However, as they reached the town, Regina, the unofficial leader of the group, did not head towards a tavern. The four women marched straight through the town and towards the outskirts, where they came across a stable. Emma groaned. Now she knew why they were excited. Her feet were tired, she could admit that, but these beasts terrified her. Her time as Princess Emma in the wish realm did little to assuage her fear, but at least she knew how to ride one. Sort of.

“Emma? Do you want your own or do you want to share?” A voice broke her out of her reverie. She looked up into Regina’s face.

“Uhh…” She looked at the horses once more, and back to her girlfriend. _They were girlfriends, right? They should probably talk about that. I mean, generally when two women slept together- uhh… in the same bed. Not_ sleeping _sleeping together. Yet. But god, when they did-_

“EMMA!”

Emma jumped “Wha?”

“Do. You. Want. To. Share. A. Horse?” Regina drew out slowly.

“Yes” Emma blushed and looked at the ground.

Regina huffed and walked back over to the stable master. Emma was pretty sure she heard her mutter “Adorable idiot” under her breath.

Eventually the group got their horses sorted out. Thankfully Regina had the foresight to bring a stock of gold and old jewels with her for this journey, otherwise they would be broke. To Emma’s relief, they did not continue on their trek today, but rather kept the horses at the stables for tonight and made their way back to the town center. Reign kept vetoing every option for both dinner and a place to sleep, before Renata eventually took her by the arm and into an alley, and when the queen came back, it was with mussed hair and with a much more agreeable attitude towards lodging for the night. Regina snorted when she saw her. Actually snorted. Emma thought she had never heard a more adorable sound. She broke into a grin, and the once more happy group headed to the closest inn to get rooms for the night. Best take advantage of Reign’s bliss while it lasted.

They settled on two rooms, Regina insisting on _any_ room not next to the other duo (Emma could see why, Reign had eyes glued on Renata ever since _whatever_ happened in that alley. She was sure she didn’t want to know). They got their keys and went back out to find dinner at a tavern. Emma was less than enthused with the options. Chimera was not one of her favorites. Regina, in her typical way, rolled her eyes and ordered something for her that was clearly not in English. _Wait. Has everyone around not been speaking English this whole time?_ Emma listened around. _Man, Regina was right in her observation of me being an idiot._

“Regina?”

“Yes dear?”

“What language are these people speaking?”

“And why did you not notice it?” Regina added.

“Uhhh… Yea that too.”

Regina laughed. “I put an enchantment on your menu so you could read it. The rest is just pure obliviousness on your part. What have you been thinking about this whole time?”

Emma blushed. “Uhh, just something I want to talk about later.”

Regina smiled “Okay. As long as everything is okay.”

“Oh yea! Yea, everything is good.” Emma confirmed, nodding her head as if her verbal affirmations were not enough.

Regina looked at her, unconvinced. “The language is similar to a language used in some parts of the Enchanted forest, though a different dialect. They seem to understand me well enough though.”

“Oh. It sounded like Spanish.”

“And you are intimately familiar with Spanish?”

“Well… No, but I thought I heard some words that sounded familiar.” Emma said sheepishly.

Regina chuckled “I am just messing with you. It is a little similar, I suppose, but not quite.”

Emma could accept that. Their dinner came, and Emma was pleased with Regina’s order for her. She had a sandwich with some kind of meat and cheese on it, along with a bowl of broth based soup. It was rather tasty, though she couldn’t pinpoint what meat was in the sandwich or the soup.

“Mutton”.

“What?” Emma said, attention broke from her food and looking up frantically.

“You asked what meat was in your food. It’s mutton, meat from a sheep.” Renata responded.

“Oh.” Emma replied.

Regina laughed “You didn’t mean to ask that out loud, did you?”

Emma blushed. “Maybe.” She said quietly.

“Quite good, isn’t it?” Renata asked.

“Um yea actually. I don’t think I have ever had sheep before. I don’t know how I feel about it.”

Regina thought for a moment “That was actually one thing I was confused about when I cursed us to Storybrooke. There was no lamb or mutton anywhere. In the Enchanted forest it was the main source of meat. Poorer people tended to eat mutton, the lamb was fed to the royals. But in America, at least, no one eats it. I ended up looking it up when the internet came along, and apparently it used to be popular there too, but for some reason people decided stopped eating it. In some other countries it is still common, though.”

“Interesting. I had wondered where all the flavorful meat was.” Renata replied.

Reign added “I thought I was done eating mutton when I left Robin.”

Emma looked to her “What exactly happened between you and wish realm Robin?”

Reign tensed as Regina turned her attention as well. She didn’t know either. She sighed. “Well. It seems once a cheater, always a cheater. He found Marian.”

Emma winced in sympathy. Regina was furious. They spent the rest of dinner Robin Hood bashing with Renata thoroughly confused but also amused by the trio of women she was sitting with. Eventually though, they made their way back to the inn and into their rooms.

Emma fell onto the bed, exhausted but happy. Who knew that a trip to save their son from who knows what would turn out to be such a happy bonding experience, at least so far. She broke out of her thoughts to watch Regina as she started to strip off her clothes and change into her nightwear. At this point, the women were comfortable with their bodies in front of each other, though they had done little more than share innocent kisses. Regina slipped out of her bra, and Emma couldn’t help but take in the sight of smooth olive skin bared before her.

“Like what you see?” Regina teased.

“Mmm” Emma groaned. “So much.”

Regina actually looked shocked. She blinked a few times before cracking a smile.

“You know that, right? You are so beautiful.” Emma confessed.

Regina blushed and started to tear up. Emma launched off of the bed and to Regina. She held the brunette’s face gently between her hands.

“I am so, so lucky to have you.” Emma said before leaning and kissing her. Gently, she moved her right hand to trace up and down the woman’s side, receiving shivers in response. The kiss heated up, Regina deepening it and placing her right hand on Emma’s hip as her other grasped her long blonde hair. Emma pulled back, only to yank her Henley shirt over her head, leaving her in a scant black ribbed bralette. Regina gulped and crashed back into her, adding her tongue at once before moving to kiss down Emma’s jaw towards her neck. Emma groaned before backing Regina up towards the double bed covered in furs. Her legs hit the frame and she fell back, pulling Emma on top of her. Their mouths found each other for a minute before Emma sat up, pulling off the last piece of clothing remaining on her top half before settling back on top of Regina. She moaned as they felt their bare skin pressed together for the first time. They didn’t kiss, just looked in each other’s eyes. Regina lifted her arm to tuck a piece of hair behind Emma’s ear. She then stroked the woman’s cheek.

“I am so, so lucky to have you too.” Regina rasped, voice full of emotion and maybe a tinge of lust. She leaned up, gently kissing Emma before falling back to the bed and sighing, a grin in place on her lips.

“Will you be my girlfriend? Emma asked, thinking back to her internal monologue earlier.

Regina blinked, “Was I not already?”

“I don’t know. We never really discussed it or anything. I didn’t know if girlfriend was too juvenile for you or something.”

Regina giggled “It is a little juvenile, but with you I like it. Though I would prefer ‘partner’ if anything.”

Emma looked away. “Partner.” She considered, “I think I like that too.”

Regina smiled and pulled the woman back down to kiss her again. “So, Em-ma. Will you be my partner?”

Emma smiled against her mouth, “I would love nothing more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay beautiful people! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and getting inside Emma's brain for a bit. Emma POV will be more common coming up, but Renata's storyline still has plenty of things to go through. 
> 
> And here is where the potential spoiler begins:
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
> I want your opinions and feeling about what you want to see in upcoming chapters. From the beginning, Renata was not meant to have a happy ending. That is simply how I imagined the path to this story becoming solely Swanqueen. However, it seems that from the comments that people really love Renata, and I don't want to upset people too bad. I love stories where your heart gets absolutely shredded, but not everyone likes to be a crying mess at the end of a fic, and I understand that. So. Here's where I need your feedback. Do you want the original storyline where Renata does not get a happy ending, but only Swanqueen is endgame, or do you want to keep Renata/Reign as a pairing to the end? Maybe you want something else altogether. I don't know, but I would like to take your feelings into account on the matter and not pull a Game of Thrones season 8 just because I can/ it was the original plan.  
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Okay, spoiler over. Thank you guys for reading. I do love seeing your comments, even if I do not always respond. I do always read and they make me very happy. So- If you read the last paragraph, please leave a comment with your thoughts, and I'll see you guys next time!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo... this chapter kinda went off the rails. It's all good. I think. It's fine. Everything is fine. *panics in gay*
> 
> This chapter has been rewritten twice, with each of the three having a completely different plot... It happens. Basically this entire section did not exist before and we were going to pick up with where Henry's scarf let them, but I realized there was a lot of shit to get through lore-wise and emotion-wise so y'all are getting a few chapters of that instead. And then I changed the aim of the whole story based off the feedback from the last chapter. All that to say: I hope this chapter is not an entire mess and I apologize if it is. I do plan to eventually go back and edit the whole story once it is done, so it will eventually become a bit more polished than this. 
> 
> Without further ado, buckle up and prepare yourself for... whatever all this is. :P

Emma and Regina had settled into the bed together after one more make out session. Emma knew she wasn’t quite ready to have sex with Regina, and Regina knew it too. However they did incredibly enjoy exploring new areas of each other’s bodies.

“Earlier, you said there was something you wanted to talk about. Was it just the girlfriend thing or was there more?” Regina questioned.

Emma hummed “More. A lot more really.”

“Mmm, okay, so what exactly?” Regina asked turning to curl in to her partner’s side.

“Well I guess for one I think we should talk about expectations. You know, about… sex.” Emma shied away.  
  


“You don’t have to blush. We are both lying topless in this bed.”

Emma gave a short laugh “And it’s great, but I want to work towards… more.”

Regina nodded. “Of course. Darling, I will go at whatever pace you need. Just let me know what you want, and I will do it. _We_ can do it. There’s no pressure. Gods know I took my sweet time after… everything.”

They had talked about Regina’s sexual history to a certain length. Emma was appalled at the misinformation she had received over the years from Mary Margaret about Regina’s first marriage. The woman had confessed that sex, to her, had always been a weapon. Sex was control, first used against her, and she later grew to wield it herself. Even in recent years, She hadn’t had the most pleasant experiences. Even with Robin, it was more of an obligation to lie with him. He loved her, so she should take it. There was a reason she always struggled to return the sentiment. ‘I love you’ just never seemed to want to fall from her lips when it came to him. With Emma though, it was different. She had said it, but only once before. She realized she should say it again so Emma did not think she just said it because Emma was upset that one day. She should be saying it all the time. She would.

“Emma?”

“Yea?”

Regina pulled away from Emma’s shoulder to look in her eyes. “I love you.”

Emma beamed, “I love you too” and leaned in to kiss her once again.

Regina smiled, this is what she wanted. This is what she had wanted all her life. “So, what do you think Renata is hiding?” She didn’t mean to change the conversation, exactly. She was just curious.

“I don’t know. She hasn’t really said anything to me.” Emma responded.

“Hmm. We talked for a minute last night. She said there was something about the past that I did not know. Or maybe _her_ past. I am not sure, but it seems to be bothering her a lot.”

Emma nodded “I think it must be difficult to talk about for her.”

“I just… don’t know what it could be. I mean, we have barely been apart, at least for her adult life.” Regina thought out loud.

“Maybe that’s part of it. As far as you know she has not been away from you, but what if that is not true?”

“How?” Regina asked, confused.

“Well I don’t know that part. I didn’t know her before. That’s gonna have to be all you. Or you can wait until she is ready to talk.”

Regina thought through the last few months. They never really got to talk about what happened that night Emma came to the house, when Renata lost control. Everything had happened so fast she never got the chance. She had assumed it had something to do with their life at the castle, seeing Regina brutalized by her husband night after night. Maybe it was due to something else though, and she was self-centered enough to assume that her problems were the cause of another’s distress like that. She wouldn’t know until she got to really talk to the woman though. She got up from the bed and padded over to put on a shirt, leaving the bra off for now. There was no way she was going to be stabbed by wires right now.

“Can’t contain your curiosity, my Queen?” Emma joked.

Regina walked over to Emma’s side and captured her lips firmly. “You know it.” She turned to leave their room. Entering the hallway, the woman turned and closed the door firmly behind her before turning to her right and walking past the first set of doors to the next wooden door on her right. She had successfully gotten them rooms not next to each other. She knocked, and waited. Hearing scrambling on the other side, she rolled her eyes to herself. Renata answered the door in undone brown trousers and a loose white tunic thrown over her head.

“Can we talk?” Regina asks.

Renata purses her lips but sees Regina’s serious expression and nods, opening the door to let the woman come in while she puts on boots.

“Gods it smells like sex in here” Regina remarks.

“Well what did you expect?” Reign snarks, irritated at her time being interrupted once again by her doppelganger.

“Oh its exactly what I expected.”

“Then you do not get to talk.”

Renata interjects “okay, ladies.” She makes her way back to the bed with Reign on it to kiss her goodbye, which Reign immediately deepens, causing Regina to roll her eyes once again.

“Hurry back” Reign commands throatily.

“You know I will. Now behave.” Renata pecks her on the forehead before pulling away and dodging the queen’s hands grasping to pull her back. “Shall we?” She directs at Regina, opening the door to the hallway of the inn.

They made their way to the front of the inn and out onto the dead city streets. They walk leisurely in the silence for a time.

“So what have you figured out?” Renata asks Regina.

Regina sighs, “honestly, not much. I know that something happened while I wasn’t there, but I don’t know what or when that could have been.”

Renata hummed. “You are mostly correct.”

“Well what part am I wrong about?” Regina asks, frustrated.

“You were there for part of it, you simply did not know it.”

“What do you mean?”

Renata groaned. “Reign is going to be pissed. I haven’t even told her yet, despite her near constant attempts at bribery.”

“Bribery?” Regina smirks.

“Oh, you know exactly what that bribery consists of.” Renata confirms.

Regina laughs “Not surprised in the least.”

They take a turn out of the town, towards a clearing. “I was not actually left transfigured into a tree for very long.”

“What? But that was how we found you?” Regina questions.

“Yes, but that was the second time.”

Regina frowns “But I never noticed.”

“Why would you notice a random tree being cleared from the castle gardens? They realized that something happened because you never came to mourn me and decided that my punishment was not nearly enough.” Renata confirmed.

“But you still look the same…”

“You know just as well as me that magic can act as a preserver of youth. I am not still twenty one.”

Regina thought. “So, if you were taken out of your transfigured state to be punished further, what did they do?”

“Well, they did many things, and I also learned more about myself.”

“Like what? You have got to help me a little bit here. I do not know what questions to ask.”

They were coming up on the clearing now. “For one, I learned I could do this.” She flicked her wrist over the ground in front of them and a blanket appeared, covering the grass and weeds under it.

Regina blinked. “And how did you learn that you possessed magic? I am assuming it is innate, as I doubt they sat you down for lessons. Speaking of ‘them’, who were they?”

The women settled down on the blanket to continue their talk. “They pushed too hard one day, and my magic fought back. They were not amused. As for who they were, it was several, but the ringleader if you will was Reul Ghorm. Of course it was instigated by the King when he was alive, but she kept the tradition going until the curse was cast.”

Regina deflated “And here I thought you had missed seeing me at my worst. The blue bitch’s involvement is of no surprise though. I cannot fathom how the Charmings still trust her.”

Renata gave a hum of agreement “She is quite the nasty one. Rather inventive, too.”

Regina turned to look at her. She could see the pain coming to the surface. How could she not have noticed the differences between the woman before her and the person she knew as queen? The years must really blur details well. She reclined back, sprawling out on the blanket. What the Storybrooke residents wouldn’t give to see her right now, laid out on a blanket in the middle of the night outside of a random town, only mostly dressed. Renata shifted to be beside her.

“Why did you push me towards Emma so much?” She whispered.

“Now that is a good question. My… magic is unique. I can perform basic conjuring like summoning a blanket, but really it is tied to nature. I am elemental, but not a physical element like earth or water. My element is magic itself. It… is a bit complicated, and I don’t really understand it myself sometimes. It is not like Ghorm was about to give me an explanation, so I mostly figured things out on my own when I could break out of my bindings. That was one thing I was not supposed to be able to do, but because of my nature, I can. I can… feel, in a way, the connection between you and Emma. It was the same reason I knew I could break my curse with your kiss. I could feel that tie as well. But yours with Emma, it is just as strong, but also unique.”

“Are… are you saying that Emma and I are true loves as well?” Regina responded, questioning everything she thought she knew. “I thought you could only have one.”

“You see, that is where the fairies and other magical users are wrong. Now with the fairies, I am not sure if they deceive on purpose or if they really do not know. True love is not fated the way they make it seem. It is a connection that is cultivated by two people and has reached a point of unconditionality to it. You, you are special. So, so special.” Renata reached over and grasped onto Regina’s hand. “You feel so strongly and you have so much love to give. That is why you have developed true love with so many. Most people will never have a true love, but you have three. Each of them are different, but your love is enough for all of them.”

“Three?”

“Yes. Me, Emma, and your son. At least, so far.” Renata confirmed.

“But… Daniel? What about him?”

“Ahh, a difficult one.” Renata squeezed the hand that was held with her own. “Given enough time, it is perfectly possible that Daniel would have developed into a true love, but that future was snatched away by Cora. As it was, he was your first love, and you undeniably felt that loss, but it wasn’t true love, at least not yet.”

A tear fell down Regina’s cheek and she nodded.

“I’m sorry, Gina”

“No, no, I am just realizing that the things I did in his name, were really in yours, I just couldn’t remember it. But you… you never would have wanted those things done in your name, neither would he. That’s been the hardest part, realizing that my revenge would have disgusted the people I claimed to do it for.”

Renata sighed “It wasn’t pretty, but I was never disgusted with you. I understood.”

The brunette turned her head to look at the woman looking to the stars on her right. “Just how creative were Ghorm’s punishments?”

The blonde’s features twisted. “She... she liked to manipulate."

"I am going to need more explanation than that. Wait. You were never disgusted with me? Present tense? How much did you see?" Regina questions hesitantly.

Ren sighed. Here it goes, the thing which was truly bothering her. Well more so the act of keeping it a secret was bothering her. She knew Regina and Reign had to know but dreaded telling them. "A particular favorite of the fairy's was to glamour me into a prisoner in the torture chamber and switch the bodies so that I would receive the torture dealt instead.” Her eyes held shut in the wake of the bomb she had just dropped.

Silence. "Who's torture chamber?"

Ren pursed her lips. "I think you know."

Regina’s jaw dropped and she snatched her hand away from the other woman’s grasp. “How can you stand to look at me? To _be_ with a version of me? You stared me in the face as I _tortured_ you!”

Renata turned on her side to face the other woman. “I have had many years to think about it, to relive it. At the end of the day, it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t you. I have to separate the two, it’s the only way I could survive.” She replied sadly.

“Gods” Regina cried, folding in on herself. Renata closed her eyes, tears finally brimming to the surface as she focused mind on Emma to summon her. After a moment, Emma appeared, having been able to hone her wild magic enough to teleport once she understood the message Renata sent.

“Shit” Emma mumbled, seeing the two tear-soaked women before her.

She launched forward to wrap her arms around Regina but paused before actually doing so. She turned her head to Ren with a questioning gaze, which was returned with a quick nod. Regina flinched for only a moment before accepting Emma’s hold, but not relaxing into it.

“Shhh… It’s okay” Emma comforted.

“No it is fucking not!” Regina wailed.

Emma’s eyes widened substantially. She rubbed circles in the woman’s back. “Oh, Okay… Talk to me. What are you feeling?” She tried again.

“Everything!” She continued crying and Emma pulled her in so her head was resting on the blonde’s shoulder.

Renata sighed, mostly in control of her own tears by now. “Gina, I’m sorry. This is why I didn’t want to tell you. It wasn’t your fault.”

Regina saw red and broke from Emma’s hold to get in Renata’s face, which was not far away to begin with. “Not my fault?! How in the ever-living FUCK is it not my fault?! Everything that has ever gone to shit in your life was entirely MY FAULT! Your parents were murdered because of me! You were arrested because of me! You were- fuck!” She shook her head and the tears came again. What she didn’t notice was that Renata had tears streaming down too. “You were FUCKING TORTURED BY ME! How the hell can you say that it was not my fault? It was ALL MY GODDAMN FAULT!” She screamed in tears at Renata’s face.

Ren took in a shaky breath while the other blonde was awestruck. She had never heard that many cuss words from the woman’s lips _total._ What on earth was going on? She was so confused.

The taller blonde rose up silently, fuming in emotions. She grasped the brunette’s shoulders and pushed her so she was back in Emma’s lap. Emma could see the storm brewing in Renata’s eyes and just hoped they could work this out, and that Renata would choose the right thing to say right now if she said anything. She also did not appreciate her putting hands on Regina, even though she wasn’t forceful about it. But now was really not the time. She would talk to Ren later about it.

Renata leaned in close to where their noses were almost touching. “Now you got your chance to talk. Here’s mine.” She practically snarled out. This was a side of the woman that neither had really seen. This was the part that almost pounded Hook into a pulp. Her voice was low, she was not yelling at all, but the anger behind her words was palpable. “You do not get to yell at me. You sure as hell do not get to tell ME how to feel. YOU did not CHOOSE for ANY of those things to happen. They just fucking did. Your MOTHER murdered my parents, not you. LEOPOLD had me arrested, not you. Ghorm and Leopold orchestrated my torment, NOT YOU. YOU didn’t even have memories of me, and above that I was not the one you saw as you were acting. Stop with the fucking pity party. Taking responsibility for your actions can be important, but so can acknowledging that you and I were FUCKED by fate or everyone around us, whatever the hell you want to attribute it to. So until YOU choose to move on from this shit-hole of a past that we can’t fucking change and live your life, stay the fuck away from me. And don’t you ever, EVER scream at me again or so help me you will fucking regret it.” And with that vanished in a flurry of gold. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes. Whelp. That happened. Thanks for reading you beautiful people and I will see y'all next time!!
> 
> -Queenie


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor TW: Depictions of violence and torture. Nothing graphic at all.

Regina sat, stunned and silent, in Emma’s lap. She had her arms around her, idly rubbing circles on the woman’s arms.

“Do you want to go back to our room? Or stay here?” Emma asked quietly.

“Room, please.” She turned around in Emma’s embrace and held on to the blonde.

Emma took a deep breath and focused on where she wanted to go. It took a minute, but she soon felt the furs of the bed under her crossed legs instead of the blanket. The room was already in darkness, the lamp having burned out while they were outside. Emma helped Regina under the covers, and held her close. She didn’t ask anything. She didn’t want to stress Regina any more than she already was, and it didn’t seem to be her business. She drifted off, arms tight around the woman she loved

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_“Rise and shine” The deceptively pleasant words woke Renata just before a metal bar was beat against the steel rungs of her prison. She covered her ears, but it made little difference. “Get up, bitch!” She rose, not out of a passive obedience, but out of the knowledge of the consequences if she refused. She stared down at the King outside of her cell. She might be taller and stronger than him physically, but make no mistake, he had all the leverage here. He also never hesitated to use it. This was her reality. It had been for the past year._

_She went through the motions. It was routine at this point. He beat her, burned her, and demeaned her to his heart’s desire. She was sure it brought him supreme sick pleasure to use her, the one his wife had chosen over him. He could not make the queen like him, or even tolerate him, but he could bring her lover to her knees._

_As far as torture went, this was mundane. Renata had to really piss him off for it to become truly bad. As much as she liked pissing him off, it was not worth it. She learned very quickly, as did he. The only thing that could truly force her submission was Regina, it always had been. Reul Ghorm had supplied him with dreamcatchers. Nasty little things. When Renata did not comply, Leopold simply took out his frustration on his Queen, and made Renata watch the fruits of her own disobedience. She did not disobey anymore. 31… 32… 33… She unconsciously counted his whip lashes in her head, dissociating to the point she could barely feel it anymore. She wondered if this was a by-product of her magic. This… diversion of pain. Either that or she had just been beat so much it barely registered anymore. 44… 45…46… Should be almost done. The old man rarely had the endurance in him to do more than 50. She hoped this would be a normal day. He would string up her bleeding body with the help of the fairy and berate her already broken mind. He would take his rage out on her and then she would be dumped back in her cell. After a few hours, the blue bitch would come around and heal the visual evidence of her beating. Not the pain. Never the pain. But the King wanted a fresh canvas each day to take out his anger. She could only hope that being here meant he did not take it out on his queen… her queen…_

_She cried for Regina, for the woman she lost._

“Renata”

_She groaned in pain and writhed in her cell, cursing the dampening magic put on the area to prevent her escape, not that she was skilled enough to do so._

“Ren”

_She could almost swear she was hearing her love’s voice, how she missed her, how she longed to know she was alright._

“REN”

She woke with a start, staring up into the eyes she loved so much. She launched up to her, wrapping her arms tightly around the woman and sobbing.

Reign held on with wide eyes. She squeezed the woman in her arms. “It’s okay, it’s alright. I’m here.” Renata pulled back and silenced her mouth with her own. It was desperate and hard, and she flipped them to press the entirety of her body over Reign’s, needing to feel her. After stroking her lover’s tongue with her own, she relaxed and pulled away to rest her head on Reign’s chest. Reign stroked her golden hair. “Go back to sleep, my love.” She murmured, concerned. She knew not everything was alright when Ren came back last night. It was obvious.

Ren laid there for a minute on her lover. She sighed against the woman’s chest. “No, I need to talk to you. I’ve been putting it off for too long and it’s not fair for Regina to know more than you.”

Reign nodded. “No, it isn’t. but I understand, and I am not mad about that. But I hope you know that you can talk to me about anything.” She continued sleepily stroking through the blonde’s hair.

“I know, and I am sorry. Just… please remember how much I love you and know that what I am about to tell you does not change anything between us. I have had a long time to work this through and I have made my peace, and I hope you will be able to do the same, but I understand if you need space.”

“Okay my darling, talk to me.” She wrapped her arms around the woman lying on her, not caring about the extra weight on her. Renata rehashed what she had told Regina the previous night, to a quite different and possibly unexpected outcome. Reign was furious, that much was clear, but this side of the woman had less of the self-deprecating tendencies and more of the revenge-seeking ones. “I will kill that moth if it is the last thing I do.” She swore.

Ren leaned up from her spot and captured Reign’s lips. The brunette immediately deepened it and moved one hand to the back of Ren’s head, slipping her tongue in between pink lips. She flipped them and straddled the younger woman. Renata moaned and encouraged her actions, pulling her further on top of her. Reign was not on top often, but she wanted to show the other woman just how much she cared. Ren accepted it for now, longing to just feel Reign no matter what form it took.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Heyahhhh… I should have knocked…”

Two heads turned around to look at the red-faced intruder.

“I swear, what is it with you people and bad timing?” Reign grumbled as she shifted off of her blonde.

Emma didn’t know whether she should turn around or not. “Honestly, I didn’t think _that_ was on the agenda this morning.” She admitted, looking apologetically at Renata.

Renata shrugged as she stood up from the bed “We all have our ways of dealing with stress” She looked around for a moment. “Darling, are my pants?” She directed to the other woman, who was stretching on the other side of the bed. She was at least wearing a black slip. Renata however was butt naked. Reign grabbed the garment and stalked over to where Renata was pulling on her top and kissed her firmly, shoving the pants into her hands.

After a moment Emma cleared her throat. They had either forgotten she was there, or really didn’t care. The way Reign turned and raised an eyebrow with a smirk indicated the latter. “Anyway… We are about to go downstairs for some breakfast and hoping to leave within about half an hour, so get ready.” She turned to leave, choosing to pointedly ignore Reign’s exhibitionist tendencies.

“Emma?” She paused, looking back to Renata. “How is she?”

Emma bit her bottom lip in thought. “Not… great.” She breathed “I think a bit more time and just being around you will help.”

Renata nodded. The older blonde gave her a sympathetic smile and made her way downstairs for some much-needed food.

Shortly after, the other joined them, and then continued on to the stables where their mounts were staying for the night. Things were a little tense, and Regina especially was quiet. Too quiet. It seemed the woman was following Ren’s request of staying away from her. She didn’t really mean to be that harsh, but it ticked her off that Regina would start yelling at her over what had happened. Truly, she did not need to deal with three sets of emotions at the moment. Her and Reign’s were more crucial at the moment, and she was not going to make a habit of telling Regina things before Reign.

The troupe continued on, following that red scarf, and they all just hoped that the next few days went smoother than the last.


	16. Chapter 16

After a few more days of travel, which was surprisingly quiet, the group came to a settled clearing with a cave. The scarf seemed to stutter for a minute before beelining towards the mouth of the cave. The four women dismounted their three horses, Regina barely managing to keep Emma from falling on her face, as usual. Renata took the reins of the horses and took them to nearby trees to secure them while the other three went on ahead. It was their child after all.

Emma, Regina, and Reign glanced at each other before entering the tall entrance of the cave. Regina led, with Emma following behind her and Reign pulling the rear.

“Grandma?” The whole group froze. A dark-haired barrel of energy crashed into Regina, and she stared at Emma, slack jawed. Emma was in a similar state, but instead could not remove her eyes from the koala now attached to Regina’s legs.

“Gramma Emma?” She now turned her attention to the blonde of the group, lightening her grip on Regina, but instead Emma walked over and pat her on the shoulder.

“I guess that’s me kid.” Emma confirmed questionably.

“Well I see that I am chopped liver” Reign chimed in, causing a confused head tilt as the girl attempted to reconcile two “Grandmas” along with “Gramma Emma”. “It is quite alright dear. Henry is your father, correct?” Reign directed towards the girl.

She merely nodded.

“Okay, and what is your name, dear?” Regina added, failing miserably at calmly taking the news that her baby boy had a baby himself. A not-so-little baby at that.

“Lucy” She buried her face in Regina’s stomach again. Regina looked up, tears threatening to fall.

Reign finally made her approach and knelt down onto a knee to be at eye level with Lucy. “It is a pleasure to meet you dear. May I ask where your father is?”

Lucy looked at her. She nodded after a moment. “He’s back here.” She released Regina and turned to lead them down just as Renata arrived.

“What did I miss?” She asked upon seeing the dazed expressions surrounding her.

Reign glanced at her then back at Lucy. “Henry has a daughter.” She said as explanation. Ren looked over, noticing the girl for the first time, and her eyes blew open.

“I thought he was 19!” Ren exclaimed.

“So did we” Reign quietly confirmed.

Ren was silent for a moment. “…Ahh-okay then.”

“So, we are about to go see Henry, and hopefully figure out what is going on” Reign tugged Renata along to catch up with the rest of the group.

Lucy’s relative silence had been broken upon the walk to the interior of the cave. Just how big is this thing? “So do you _all_ have cars in that world? What’s ice cream like? Did you bring any? I want a dog, but dad says they are too much trouble to keep up with for how much we travel. My mom is really pretty, like you. Have you ever met her? I always wanted to go to Storybrooke and meet you, but dad said we couldn’t. But now that the wizard is scaring everyone, you get to come here!”

Regina and Emma of course did not get to actually answer any of the questions Lucy asked before she launched into another. Really the only thing Emma picked up out of that was there was some sort of evil wizard. Regina tried to soak it all up but got floored with the thought that Henry had a partner here. Maybe even a _wife_ , and she didn’t know about them. Of course, she was sadder that he had a _child_ and she did not know about her. They soon came to see candlelight dancing on the walls of the cave that did not belong to Lucy’s own.

“Luce” They heard a deep yet familiar voice call out “What were you doing out? I told you to stay inside! It is not safe out there.”

Lucy had the decency to look sheepish “I’m sorry dad, I was just going to get help.”

“Help? What help?”

Regina was the first to step out around the corner, almost in tears as her reality set in. She had missed so, so much. Her baby boy was not even close to a boy anymore as he lay on a makeshift cot, shirtless but with his shoulder bandaged and arm in a sling. He met her eyes and his jaw dropped open.

“Mom?”

Just then Emma came up next to her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. She was teary-eyed as well, but not completely frozen as Regina was. The other two came around the corner and Reign froze as well, taken over by those motherly instincts everyone liked to forget she had. It took encouraging from both Renata and Emma to get the two to go up to him. They came to sit on either side of him as he struggled to sit up. He looked back and forth between them.

“It’s good to see you, all of you.” He looked pointedly at Emma and Ren shoved her forward to join the family festivities.

“Well Lucy, what to you say to a walk around the cave?” Renata offered her hand to the girl.

Henry glared at her with distrusting eyes. “Mom?” He asked in a low voice.

“She will be completely safe, I promise. We will explain it all.”

Henry hesitated, “At least let me know your name.”

Ren smiled charmingly as Lucy ran up to her. “Renata.” She turned with the girl and headed out to the other side of the cave for the women and Henry to reconnect.

Henry’s face froze upon hearing her name, not that she saw it.

“Henry?” Regina placed her hand on his uninjured shoulder.

“I..I… She’s alive?”

This had Regina’s curiosity. “Henry, what do you know about her?”

He sighed. “She was in a couple of the books over the years. She was always assumed dead at the end of them, though.” He could see Regina wanted more explanation. “I know that you grew up together, I know that she was your… person… when you were married to the King” He cringed. He might be an adult, but his mother taking lovers was never something he wanted to think about. “And I know you were caught and she was punished brutally.” He took a breath. “I know that she was first held by the King, and he manipulated her using your image. After he died, the Blue Fairy took over and became very creative with her ‘punishments’ and basically used her as an outlet for her sadistic ideas. When… when Blue found out that the curse was coming, she did _something_ to Renata. It never said what she did, but they always seemed to insinuate that she died.”

_Manipulated her using your image._ Neither woman knew exactly what he meant by that but did not want to ask. One would have to ask Renata later.

After finishing, he smiled at them. “I’m glad you found her though. I know she was very special to you.”

Reign smiled softly “Is. She _is_ very important to us.”

Henry nodded. “So… you want to tell me exactly what is going on here?” He glanced to where Emma was practically glued to Regina next to him.

Reign chuckled “Well, we will give you the long version eventually, but the short one is that Emma left Captain Guyliner and Regina snatched her up.”

“and you?” He raised an eyebrow in a very Regina-esque way.

“I got cheated on by the pine cone man and caught a portal to Storybrooke, where we changed my name to ‘Reign’ and then I found out Renata was there. I promptly made sure no one else could have her.”

“Hmm. I always thought that whenever you came back to Storybrooke it would be to re-join with mom. Not that you are not my mom, you are. Just… nevermind.”

Emma snorted “He definitely got that from me.”

“I don’t think anyone here will challenge that statement, dear” Regina teased before kissing the top of her head softly. Henry smiled at them. This had taken far too long to happen.

“Now, enough with us. You have some explaining to do, mister.” Regina turned back to him.

“Umm-Yeah!” Emma joined.

“Alright, alright” He conceded. “What do you want to know first?”

“Why didn’t you call?” “When did you have a kid?” “Where is that child’s mother?” They all answered in a cacophony of questions.

“Uhh-okay I heard something about ‘calling’ out of all of that. I couldn’t get it to connect after my last call several years ago.”

“Well Lucy seemed to manage just fine.” Reign contested, almost pouting.

“Yea” Henry frowned “I don’t know. I guess I hadn’t tried in a while. It was more disappointing every time it didn’t work.”

“I can understand that.” Regina said, “So, how about Lucy?”  
  


Now Henry beamed “She is 10. I have a feeling she is almost exactly how I was at that age.”

“And her mother?” Emma prompted.

He nodded “Ella. As in Cinderella. The realm we met had alternate versions of many of the well known stories. It just so happened that Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage was actually a motorcycle.” He grinned. “She is off gathering supplies. With my injuries I am stuck here for a while.”

Regina looked at his shoulder. “May I look?”

He gave a nod of approval and she began to unwrap his shoulder. “What caused this?”

Henry grimaced, “the wizard. He is an alternate Rumpelstiltskin who has been traveling around, capturing the power of anyone he finds valuable.”

“Like with the sorcerer’s hat” Emma was concerned. They had barely escaped that one the first time.

“Similar, but different object. He doesn’t have to save up a certain amount of power in it to use it. Every new ability of amount of power he… harvests is immediately siphoned into him.

“So he is trying to get you? The Author?” Regina was inspecting the wound, and determined she could heal it, but might need a little help from Renata.

“The Author, and the heart of the truest believer. Double whammy.”

“I see. Well the good news is we can heal this shoulder of yours.”

“What? I thought you couldn’t do bones?” He questioned.

“I cannot. But I won’t have to.” She nodded at Reign to go fetch Renata.

Emma looked back to Henry “Anything else we need to know before the kid comes back?”

“Don’t think so”

“Mmkay.” The blonde pat him on his good shoulder before getting out of the way for Regina and Renata to do their thing.

Reign returned with Renata. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Henry.” She pierced him with her sharp grey eyes and a light smile.

He nodded. “Likewise. I’ve read a lot about you.”

She raised an eyebrow and looked back at Reign.

“We will explain later.” The woman pecked her on the lips while Henry cringed. “Oh come on, you have a _child!”_

Emma laughed at the exchange “If that is all you ever see, consider yourself lucky, kid!” He looked at her with an expression akin to horror as Regina chuckled in agreement and Lucy was thoroughly confused.

Renata just smirked at him as she slid in between him and Regina on the side of the cot. She looked over the wound and seemed to be having a conversation with herself. After a minute she nodded and placed her hands on either side, one over the middle of his upper arm and the other towards the center of his chest. She glanced at Regina before her eyes rolled back before glowing a golden color. In her trance, golden magic flowed through Henry’s skeleton, glowing through the skin as it made its way toward the injury. They could see his scapula snap back together before his arm popped back into it’s socket. Henry screamed, but Reign had had the good sense to turn Lucy away and cover her ears with a dampening spell. She would probably enjoy watching the magic work, but not so much her father crying out in pain. Emma, however, was transfixed. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. The glowing dimmed, and Ren’s eyes returned to normal before rolling back into her head once again, this time she fell unconscious, Regina ready to catch her. When the glowing dissipated completely, Henry’s shoulder was like new. The deep gash falling across it was a tiny white line, the bruising gone, and most importantly the bones were healed and where they were supposed to be.

Henry jumped up, helping Regina adjust Ren’s limp body across the cot. Emma and Reign were busy comforting Lucy, who had panicked when she turned around to see the ‘nice knight’ fallen. They assured her that she would wake up in a few hours. Well- Reign did. Emma truly had no idea what was happening and just agreed with everything she said for moral support.

While they waited on the other members of the group to rejoin them- Regina was excited to meet Ella, Henry was terrified she would give her the equivalent of an overprotective father speech- They discussed more in detail the perils that faced them as well as the past that had been missed. As it turned out, the time difference had been going on since the beginning. What was a call every couple weeks for Regina was actually a call every couple months for Henry. Though it seemed that this realm was particularly fast. Tears were shed all around, only interrupted by a woman entering the abode- Ella. She was astounded that their little hideout had now more than doubled in population, but quickly won over all the parents of her husband, plus Ren, who had woken up a little while after she arrived. The other women told her not to worry and used their magic to come up with enough food for everyone.

After everyone was well-fed and ready for to call it a night, Regina summoned up individual tents for the families, and everyone bid each other goodnight with the intention of coming up with a plan to challenge the wizard tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get ready, next chapter is full of Swanqueen! Hard talks, fluff, and just maybe a little more ;)


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I truly do apologize. This chapter was meant to be longer and come out a week ago, but with current events I have been both busy with local activism and also not in the mood to write for this. I hope it will not be as long to the next update, and thank you all for sticking with me.

It was about 10 o’clock, that first night in the caves. Everything was silent, everything except-

“Hey baby?” Regina turned to her partner’s whispered word.

“Yes, dear?”

“You know how Reign did that spell so Lucy couldn’t hear Henry while Ren was snapping his bones back in place?”

Regina cringed but nodded “Mmhm…”

“Would it be possible to cast it over… say… this tent? So that no noise could get out instead of in?”

The brunette chuckled, “I can almost guarantee that those two are doing that right now.”

“Could-Could you do that to ours too?” She asked shyly.

Regina looked at her curiously and nodded, raising her hands as a purple wave passed from the base to the top of the tent. “Done.”

Emma took a deep breath, steeling herself before she lost her confidence. She flipped herself over, quickly straddling the brunette who let out a gasp of surprise.

“Emma?” She questioned, looking up at the form on top of her. She lightly moved her hands up and down the outside of the woman’s thighs, restraining herself from doing anything else.

Emma bit her lip, causing Regina to groan underneath her, before gently cupping Regina’s face tenderly and leaning down to kiss her thoroughly. “I want” -peck- “you” -peck- “to make love to me Regina.”

The woman in question’s eyes went wide and she pulled her hands away from her partner’s thighs and placed them on either side of her face to look deeply in her eyes. She smiled, that teary, beautiful smile that just made Emma fall that much more in love with her. “Darling, I would love nothing more. What brought this on though? We need to talk first.”

Emma nodded, as best as she could with her head sandwiched between two wonderful hands. She reached up and gently tugged the hands away from her skin, only to hold them tightly in her own. “We have faced dangers before, you and me. And we always have, and always will, sacrifice all that we are for those that we love. I just- I just don’t want to face this without having taken that step with you. That is not the only reason though. First and foremost, I love you. That is why I want to do this. Second of all, I am ready. No longer will I let what _he_ did to me cast a shadow over my life with _you._ I won’t allow it.

Regina smiled even as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I think that is the sweetest thing you have ever said in your life.”

“Yea, yea, way to ruin my moment.” Emma rolled her eyes teasingly, still smiling and also crying at the same time. A lot was going through her head.

The woman giggled as she tilted up to kiss Emma once again. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, Emma. Now how does this need to work for you?”

“I… umm” Emma blushed.

“Emma?”

“Yuh-huh?”

“Have you ever been with a woman before?” Regina realized they never actually discussed Emma’s sexual history. She hadn’t realized they needed to. Of course she knew what happened with Hook, but beyond that it just never came up.

“N-Not exactly.” Emma sheepishly replied.

“Not exactly?”

“uhh. No. I haven’t.” She admitted.

Regina nodded “Okay, I… I actually like that in a way…” Regina trailed off, guiltily.

“Mmhmm, and why is that?”

Regina grinned shyly “Well, I get to be your first in something, as terrible as that is to say…”

Emma giggled “No, no, I get it. I wouldn’t take your time with Ren away for anything, but there is a part of me that wishes it was me instead.”

Regina’s smile dropped a bit, and she stroked Emma’s cheekbone. “I’m sorry darling.” She apologized sincerely.

“Well, maybe we will just have to find something you haven’t done yet and I’ll take the claim of ‘1st’ for it” Emma smirked.

Regina’s jaw dropped and she growled “We will see about that!” She laughed. “Now, do you think you would feel more comfortable giving or receiving first?”

Emma thought for a moment “I guess receiving. I’m… I’m not actually sure I will be able to… ya know, get you off” she mumbled, failing at hiding her insecurity.

“Darling, I am sure you will be able to. You make me so… gods I cannot believe I am about to say this. You make me… _aroused…_ just by being your stupidly charming self. Add the fact that you are straddling me and asking me to _make love_ to you? I’m close. Embarrassingly close. You’ll be able to make me climax, I have no doubt.” Regina took a deep breath, cheeks very flushed from both embarrassment and excitement. “I would love to get to make love to you first. Would you feel more comfortable on top of me or would you like to lay down?” She knew to ask these kinds of questions. She would never take choice away from Emma like had been done to her before.

“Umm, which is easier?”

“Well, I personally think it is easier to get comfortable when laying down. But if you do not want anyone’s weight on you, being on top is the safer bet.” Regina explained.

Emma made the connection. “Baby, I don’t think I could ever mistake you for him. You can be on top of me. I’d _love_ to have you on top of me. Um… ignore this question if it is too personal, but what did you and Ren usually do?”

Regina raised her eyebrow “Do you really want to hear about my sexual exploits with a woman who is in the tent next to ours?” she rasped.

Emma grimaced “Okay, good point, I just-“

“Em-ma.” Regina interrupted, “You are not Ren. You are two completely different women. Two incredible, beautiful, strong women. You never need to compare yourself with her. Just because we did things a certain way does not mean you have to… _fill her spot_ , or whatever you are thinking in that wonderful head of yours. You are you, no one else, and there will be no comparison.” Regina implored wholeheartedly. “It does not matter how we did things. What matters is how you and I want to do things. And right now, that starts with you.”

Emma nodded. “Okay. I want to learn from you, and then I want to make you feel good.”

She smiled “Sounds like a good plan.”

Emma removed herself from Regina’s lap, moving to lay down beside her. Regina flipped over, now on top of her, face-to-face. “I love you, Darling” the brunette whispered, before capturing her lips. She nibbled on the bottom one before kissing her firmly once more. Then she moved across the blonde’s jaw, kissing around her ear and to the back of it, where she gently licked skin there, causing the woman to groan. Regina smiled, and nibbled at her earlobe before moving down, mouth working against the column of her neck, drawing light moans from the woman below her.

Emma ran her hands up and down the back of the brunette, and before long grasped the hem of the woman’s short silk nightdress and tugged it up. Regina caught the hint and pulled away in order to sit up and pull the slip over her head, revealing soft olive skin and only a lacy thong underneath. Emma groaned looking at the woman’s breasts, before sitting up herself, almost accidentally throwing Regina off her as she scrambled to clutch on. Emma did not hesitate, though, to attach herself to one of the nipples now at her face-level. Regina moaned and ground herself into the body under her, panting.

“Hmm… oh darling that feels wonderful but let me take care of you first.” She chided gently as she pulled the woman away from her chest. She did take the opportunity to reach down and gather the base of Emma’s tank top in her hands before yanking it off. She licked her lips looking at the expanse of skin before her. She leaned down, kissing first at the hollow of the blonde’s throat, before working her way down to the middle of her breasts. Regina diverted at this point and moved over to a nipple, sucking and licking one as she gently massaged the other breast in her hand. After a minute she switched, Emma’s hand having moved to tangle in her hair.

After giving thorough attention to both, she moved her way down the woman’s fair body, pausing as she reached her navel. “Okay?”

Emma vehemently nodded, panting with eyes wide at the pause.

Regina chuckled, meeting her eyes as she returned to her spot and dipped her tongue into the blonde’s naval. Emma groaned and tried to gently push Regina down further with the hand grasping her hair. Regina laughed against her skin once more before planting one last kiss there and moving on her own accord.

She made it down to the woman’s core and tugged the boyshorts off of her partner’s body before spreading her wide and latching on, putting every effort into showing the woman below her just how much she meant to her. They made love until the early morning, Emma was unsurprisingly a quick learner as they brought pleasure to one another over and over again.


	18. Chapter 18

The next morning, the group reconvened over breakfast, which was once again a combination of caught game and magickly summoned fare.

Emma broke the silence “So, what exactly do we know about this wizard and how do we kill him?”

“Emma!” Regina reprimanded.

“What?”

Regina gestured vaguely in Lucy’s direction. “We are just going to ‘get rid’ of him”.

Emma blinked, before rolling her eyes and whispering back to Regina “The kid knows full well what we are going to do to him! She lives here and helps her mother skin boars!” She exclaimed as quietly as possible “Also aren’t you supposed to be the ‘Evil Queen’? ‘Get rid of’? Really?”

“I believe that title theoretically belongs to me.” Reign chimed in. Emma shot her a look. “What? You are rather untalented at whispering, dear.”

“Hush it, queenie.” Emma retorted. Renata snorted in laughter, earning her a smack on the shoulder from Reign.

“Why do you women always hit me? Geez…” The younger blonde complained jokingly.

“Only when you deserve it” Regina answered for her.

“Okay, okay, let’s get back to the matter at hand. How are we going to-“ Emma paused to stare at Regina with narrowed eyes, “’Get rid’ of the wizard-Rumplestiltskin-thing?”

After discussing what they knew, which turned out to be not much at all, they determined that more information was needed.

“So how much of our Enchanted Forest is replicated here?” Renata asks.

“Well, I never spent all that much time where you all are from, so I cannot be for sure, but a lot of it.” Henry responded.

Reign caught on to Renata’s idea. “Rumplestiltskin’s castle?”

Henry cringed “Yes, but do you really want to waltz into a castle owned by an extremely overpowered Dark one?”

“Good point” Emma conceded.

“Depending on how much runs parallel here, a castle might be the place to try.” Renata offered, “Most royal families saw owning magical books and artifacts as a status symbol.”

“Okay, but who’s castle?” Emma asked.

“I certainly kept a collection, along with my mother. I didn’t bring it all to Storybrooke.” Reign mentioned.

Henry grimaced.

“Henry?” Regina noticed his discomfort.

“There is something you should know… about this place. Many of the people here are different from people in your realm. Take Ella, for example. She is definitely not one and the same with Ashley, your realm’s Cinderella. However, there are some people who, as best as I can tell, are very similar.”

“Who?” Emma questioned, with narrow eyes.

Henry took a deep breath and motioned Ella to take Lucy out. Once they were out of earshot, he explained quietly. “Leopold.”

A collective shudder went around the cave. Regina and Reign also simultaneously had the realization that their little boy was really not little anymore, and _knew_ what her marriage to the man had really entailed.

Emma, as the only woman who had not personally been witness to the man, recovered first. “How? Wouldn’t he be dead?”

“The timeline worked out differently here. Eva was never poisoned, but did eventually die of illness, and the king never married again. I am sure there is some other version of mom out there somewhere but I have never come across her and it is doubtful that she bears much resemblance at all to you.” He added, directing the last part to the two women.

“And… Snow?” Regina asks, hesitantly.

“Without you chasing her through the forest trying to kill her, she never runs into her prince Charming, and is eventually married off to some prince in another Kingdom. I didn’t really look into the specifics once I knew there was not another ma around. As for the King, he kind of disappears off the map for a little while, but it appears that he still turned into a bastard after the death of his wife- sorry for the language, mom- and made some sort of deal with the wizard for his ongoing life.”

In between trying to keep her breathing calm, she thought about her son’s words. “He disappeared for a while?”

“Well, yea, there’s no mention of him or the kingdom for several years and then it just pops back up.”

“That’s… strange” Renata admits, shooting glances at Regina and Reign.

“And not like him at all” Reign tacks on.

Henry shrugged “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“It’s alright dear, I’m sure it’s nothing.” Regina attempts to placate. As for who she is placating, that she is not so sure.”

Reign chimes in quietly, “Even before our and our mother’s move in to the Misthaven castle, there was already a large collection of magic there.”

Emma, who had been silent, breaks it “You can _not_ be seriously considering doing that!” She looks around at the faces lost in thought around her “No… NO! We are not going there! He… he…” She trails off.

“What choice do we have darling? We know _nothing_ of use to help us stop the wizard.” Regina confesses, reaching out towards Emma. “Besides, it’s not even the same person, we will all be fine.” The others nod solemnly in agreement.

Emma sighs. “Okay. Okay. I don’t like it and I have a really weird feeling about this but okay.” Regina gives her a weak smile and rubs her arm gently.

Renata looks over their way “Regina?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Would you like to go retrieve Ella and Lucy with me?”

Regina looks at her for a moment before responding. “Of course.”

The two women got up and left.

“What was that about?” Henry asked. “And don’t say nothing because they have acted awkward and spacey with each other this entire time.”

Emma looked up from where she was staring at the ground. “They had a little… misunderstanding a few days ago and I’m assuming they are going to finally work their shit out.”

Reign rolls her eyes “I swear you are worse than Ren, and she _actually_ grew up in a barn.”

Emma gaped, “Seriously?”

Reign shrugged “Pretty much. Stable hands and farmhands lived onsite to prevent thieves from breaking in.”

“Hm. Never thought about that.” Emma mused. Reign just smirked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Renata started, “Gina, I… I’m sorry. I never should have touched you like that-”

Regina put her hand up, halting the blonde’s apology. “No, I shouldn’t have made it all about me, and for that I am sorry. You had every right.”

The blonde’s eyebrows furrowed and she stopped walking. Regina paused to turn back and look at her. “No, Gina, I didn’t.” Regina wrapped her arms around herself. “There is no excuse. Just because I was provoked and I didn’t leave a bruise or a cut doesn’t make it okay.” She took a deep breath. “I… I understand that there’s something in the land without magic that is supposed to help, a ‘therapy’? I’m… I’m going to go. When we get back I mean. I’m going to go to therapy and get better.”

Regina was silent, staring at the ground. “Reign and I, we’ve talked a lot and I understand that you did it too, to help with the… memories. I never wanted to hurt you, and I am so sorry, babe. I never, ever want to hurt you or anyone else I love again. Can you forgive me?”

Regina looked up, tears in her stormy brown eyes. She took the few steps needed to close the distance between them, and wrapped her arms around the woman, pressing her head against her chest. Ren sniffled as she held Regina close. “I forgave you that very same night” Regina whispered.

Ren let out a grateful breath. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” The two women stood there for a minute before untangling, Renata pressing a soft kiss to Regina’s forehead. “I guess we should actually find Ella and Lucy?”

Regina laughed, eyes red and still a little teary. “Probably” She agreed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They stayed at the cave one more night and packed up the next morning to start their trek. Ella and Lucy stayed there, the group not wanting to risk the girl. Of course, all attempts to convince Henry to also stay and just let the four women go were failures, so the team of five carried on. Emma, Reign and Regina were happy to get to catch up with Henry better, but they would prefer keeping the boy safe at any point. They still didn’t exactly have a plan for getting into the Misthaven castle, but had a vague idea helped by the fact that three in the party knew the layout, assuming it was the same. Emma was still unnerved at best. She had no desire to meet any version of her grandfather slash partner’s abuser. At one point, conversation turned to Ren.

“So, your magic is even more powerful than Emma’s right? I mean, power over the element of magic itself is pretty unheard of.” Henry questioned.

“Well some things sure never change.” Regina commented, “You are just as curious as ever. But actually, no. Emma is still the most powerful magic user here.”

“I am?” Emma stopped short.

Ren laughed and Regina just shot her a look. “You didn’t know that?”

“Uhh, no? I mean, she can heal _bones._ You told me we could only heal surface wounds.” Emma said, bewildered.

“You and I _can_ only heal surface wounds” Regina retorted.

Reign joined in, exasperated. “We can only heal surface wounds because we can only manipulate what we see. Ren’s magic works differently. She _feels_ the magic running through life and can reach in to manipulate any of it. It’s just different.”

“Okay, so if she has abilities that we don’t, why don’t you see her as more powerful?”

“I also cannot do things that you can” Renata added sincerely. “Outside of things which already have magic running through them, my magic is spotty at best.”

“Hmm. Okay. I guess that makes sense.” Emma conceded.

“Now, if we were to happen across an angry magical creature, she would be indispensable.” Reign added.

“True” Ren considered.

“So where did that power come from? I mean nothing was ever mentioned about your parents having those kinds of powers, and they are extremely rare.” Henry asked, never through with the questioning.

Ren winced. “I eventually figured out that. My parents were not actually my blood.”

That caught their attention.

She added “They took me in at some point. The full history I will never know. All I know is that in order to have the powers I do, I have to have a very specific set of biological parents, and mine didn’t fit those requirements. They will always be my parents as far as I am concerned, but I do wish I had gotten the story before they were killed.”

Reign cast a teasing glare at Henry.

“Yea, yea, I know. At least you got Emma out of it.” He defended.

Regina just laughed.


	19. Chapter 19

After a few days of travel, the team was finally getting close to the Misthaven castle. It had been a long journey on horseback with camping in the woods. There were few towns along the way, and even fewer in the range of the stops they needed to take, preferring to get as much distance out of the sun as possible. The journey itself though had been pretty uneventful, with the occasional tossing of an idea back and forth on how to gain access to the castle. Eventually they had settled on Regina and Renata using glamours to enter through the servant quarters, and from there they would have to figure out how to get to what was once Regina’s quarters, and hope against odds that what she needed was there. It was a messy idea. They had no idea if Regina had a counterpart in this realm at all, let alone one that roughly followed the same path with the exception of the fact that this King Leopold was still alive. The details were quite questionable, and it left everyone uneasy. None perhaps more than Emma, who had argued for her spot assisting Regina instead of Renata.

As night fell, the birds became silent except for the occasional hoot of an owl, and the insects made their presence known. Emma was not ready to join Regina in their tent yet. She had too many thoughts running through her head. She heard the crunching of leaves to her right and turned suddenly, drawing her knife.

“Woah, woah, it’s just me.” Renata placated with her hands up. One held a flask and the other was empty.

Emma relaxed and replaced her knife as the woman took a spot right next to her. “What do you want?” Emma lowly growled. She wasn’t truly angry that she was sidelined for the castle investigation but she felt somewhat slighted.

“I wanted to check up on you. You seemed a little testy today and I thought we should talk.” Ren admitted.

Emma stayed silent, listening the singing of the cicadas around them. They seemed so loud tonight.

Ren sighed. “You do know why we didn’t agree to let you come, right?”

Emma sighed in response. “No. No I don’t. It should be me in there protecting her, not you. She is _my_ partner.”

“I get that. I do. Don’t you think I want to be with Reign, too? I don’t want to leave either of them unprotected. But I do get it. It’s Regina walking into the fire, so to speak. You want to protect her, it’s only natural.”

“O-kaaaay? So why are we splitting up this way?”

Ren paused. “Honestly a lot of the phrasing of why we decided who would do what was because Henry was there. I am going because I know the castle. I lived there, I was a guard. I know all the secret passageways and the patrol routes, at least the old ones. Also, I know what to expect if we do come across the King.”

“And why should I trust you to protect her from?” Emma countered, with the unspoken words of ‘ _You already failed once”_.

Ren looked down. “Most of the regrets of my life stem from those years. I should have done more, you’re right. I should have strangled him with my bare hands the _moment_ I knew what he was doing to her. I should’ve braved my execution in order to eliminate him. And I’m sorry. But the fact is, you don’t know what he is like. I do. Regina does. We would never put you in a position to kill your own kin.”

“That man is _not_ my family. I will gladly kill him in the most painful way I can come up with” Emma growled.

“And that is why we can’t let you go. It’s the same reason we are not letting Reign go. This is not a mission to kill Leopold. We have no idea what he is like in this realm, but Regina and I are prepared for the worst.”

“And if he is? The worst, I mean. If he is keeping another version of Regina or any other woman there and abusing her? What are you going to do then?” Emma grit.

Ren placed her hand on Emma’s shoulder. “We will take care of it. Neither of us are inclined to make the same mistakes as before.”

“I still don’t trust it. I mean why are you less likely to have a visceral reaction to seeing him?”

“Oh believe me, I’m not. _But…_ I will be way more likely to pinpoint if he is the same or different to the one we knew.”

“I guess that makes sense. Something about this whole mission seems kinda off though. Why do you think he seemingly disappeared for a while?”  
  
“I have no idea” Ren admitted, “But I am guessing we either will find out or it was because of something inconsequential that doesn’t really matter.”

Emma nodded.

“Now, I know we haven’t had the most physically affectionate friendship over the last little while, but I think you could use a hug. What do ya say?”

Emma huffed, but nodded. Shortly after, long arms wrapped around her from the side. It did feel good, she admitted to herself. She had never had a friendship like Regina and Renata had. They were so… _touchy_ with each other. It was enough to make her question sometimes, but she also knew that Regina would never do anything meaning to hurt her. The more she got to know Renata, she realized that the statement went to her as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As night fell the next day, the group was camped outside the castle grounds, and Regina and Ren were about to infiltrate the castle. They equipped themselves with all the weapons they could think of. They had guns strapped to their hips, knives on their backs, in their boots, and up their sleeves. Renata had even slipped a tiny one between her belt and breeches. Just because they didn’t think they were running into the same man that haunted their dreams, didn’t mean they wouldn’t be prepared for it. The duo stepped out of the tent they had been getting ready in and stared at the castle. It was a deceptively beautiful sight, the castle almost glowing in the sunset. But this building held so many nightmares for the both of them. Regina tentatively reached out and brushed her hand against Renata’s, who promptly grasped it, the both of them needing the grounding presence.

Emma and Reign had been strategizing. Okay, maybe more so on the side of grumbling. Either way, they both picked up on the magical signature of unease outside. Emma poked her head out of the tent and frowned. She gestured for Reign to come along and they went outside. Renata sensed them coming and turned her head over her shoulder toward them. Regina’s gaze did not stray. Emma came up beside Regina and pulled her into a hug, with Reign doing the same on the other side with Ren.

“It’ll be okay, my love” Reign whispered to Renata. Emma had no words but held on tighter.

They stood for a few moments. Renata interrupted the silence with a hoarse voice. “We need to go now” As she looked at the light.

“I love you” Emma said to Regina.

“And I you” Regina said as she pulled out of the hug and slid her hands down Emma’s arms to hold both her hands. She looked over her shoulder where Reign and Renata were kissing lightly, murmuring words that neither she nor Emma would hear. She pulled her attention back to the woman in front of her and let go of her hands, only to grasp the sides of her head and pull her in for a hard kiss.

“Oh dear god”

They all turned at the sound of the man’s voice breaking through the early night.

Renata choked back a laugh at the horror on Henry’s face. “Okay, okay. We do actually need to get moving now” She walked over to a nearby stump to sit and give the family a moment to say goodbye. The three women pulled Henry into a hug. Renata simply looked on as eventually Regina pulled out of the hug with one final kiss to Emma’s cheek and headed over to Ren. She stood up and held out her hand. They waved final goodbyes and vanished in a flurry of gold and purple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's just say I have not had much inspiration to write on this recently, but I am not planning on leaving it unfinished.  
> Until next time  
> -Queenie


End file.
